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Mennonite 
Handbook of Information 


13) aae Or B “eatwole 


Issued by authority of the 
Mennonite General Conference 


Through its Historical Committee 


Published by 
MENNONITE PUBLISHING HOUSE 
Scottdale, Penna, 


1925 


Copyright, 1925 
Mennonite Publishing House, 


Scottdale, Pa. 


PREFATORY REMARKS 


The book herewith handed to the Church pre- 
sents historical data in such form, we believe, as will 
be of much value to all readers. It is to be hoped 
that the searcher after facts relating to the rise and 
progress of the Mennonite Church in America will, 
in this ““Mennonite Hand-book of Information,” find 
much of interest and value which has never before 
appeared in print. 


Here, brief accounts appear of events that hap- 
pened along the historical thread of more than two 
hundred sixty years that may be used by mis- 
sionaries for general review of the advance and 
progress of the Church in the past. The committee 
also designed that such a book should find ready 
place in our schools as a text-book on purely his- 
torical subjects relating to the development of the 
Mennonite Church and the spiritual progress it has 
made from generation to generation since its estab- 
lishment in America. 

In this work the efforts of the committee have 
been expended in a studied presentation of every 
link in the chain of events leading from its earliest 
beginnings up to the present day in maintaining the 
Articles of her Confession of Faith. Such facts 
should be of great value to any one making inquiry 
into our faith, doctrine and practices, and particularly 
so to such as are converted and wish to unite with 
the Church. 

Others desiring to know our doctrines and the 


6 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


scriptural basis on which they are found, should 
find in this book a storehouse of information that 
could nowhere else be found outside of the Bible 
itself. The presentation of the matter found in this 
work, has placed something of a burden on each 
member of the committee, and it is believed that the 
finished product has been worth while, and will be 
gratefully received by an appreciative public. 


S. F. Coffman. 


INTRODUCTION 


The following leaflet prepared by a committee ap- 
pointed by the Mennonite General Conference and printed 
by the Mennonite Publishing House is used as an appro- 
priate Introduction to this book. 


Who Are The Mennonites 


The believers in Jesus Christ during the first 
century suffered many persecutions, and because of 
this severe test, heretics in the Church were few. 
Later, the Church became an institution of the state, 
persecution ceased, and religious degeneration re- 
sulted. Some, however, never adhered to the State 
Church, and others left it and sought the purity of 
primitive Christianity. These were known by vari- 
ous names—Novations, Albigenses, Paulicians, Wal- 
denses, Anabaptists, etc. 

The first congregation of the Church now known 
as Mennonites was organized in 1525 at Zurich, 
Switzerland, by Conrad Grebel, Felix Mantz, George 
Blaurock, and others. They called themselves Breth- 
ren (Swiss Brethren) but were commonly known as 
Taeufer. Not recognizing infant baptism as_ scrip- 
tural, they were classed as Anabaptists. They were, 
however, the first and oldest of the so-called Ana- 
baptist sects. It is therefore incorrect to say that 
the Mennonites descended from the Anabaptists, or 
from Anabaptist sects. 

The founder of the Mennonite Church in Hol- 
land, Obbe Philips, had formerly been an Anabaptist 
of the Hoffmanite persuasion. Menno Simons was 
born at Witmarsum, Friesland, a province in the 


8 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Netherlands, about 1496. Originally a Catholic, he 
served as a priest from 1524 to 1536. In 1536 he 
was converted and baptized by Obbe Philips. That 
same year he was ordained to the ministry and be- 
came the most influential representative of the 
Church in Holland and North Germany. His writ- 
ings and those of his faithful co-worker, Dirck Phil- 
ips, are of great value. At the time of Menno Simon's 
conversion the Church in Holland was numerically 
weak,. though the Swiss Brethren had numerous 
congregations in Switzerland, France, South Ger- 
many, Tyrol and Moravia. A bitter wave of perse- 
cution had swept over these churches and the prin- 
cipal leaders of the Swiss Brethren had suffered a 
martyr’s death, but the attempt to destroy the Church 
proved a failure. 

It was some years after Menno Simons’ conver- 
sion that the name “Mennonite” was applied to this 
body of believers in Germany, Poland, and Russia, 
and later in America; but to the present they are 
known in Switzerland as Taeufer (or Alt-Taeufer) in 
France Anabaptists, and in Holland Doopsgezinden. 

There is good reason to believe that the in- 
fluence of the Waldenses (one of a number of the 
older nonresistant sects) was largely responsible for 
the organization of the first congregation of the 
Swiss Brethren. The most characteristic and essen- 
tial points on which they, and later the Mennonites, 
differed from the leading Protestant churches of the 
same period was the principle of nonresistance and 
the doctrine of infant baptism. At that time the laws 
of the several states and provinces required member- 
ship in the state churches. All, except the Anabap- 


OF INFORMATION . 9 


tist sects, accepted this demand. The Swiss Breth- 
ren and Mennonites believed that the Church con- 
sists only of those who accept Christ and follow 
His teachings and are separated from and not identi- 
fied with the world. 

For a number of years a severe persecution of 
these followers of the Lord prevailed and many were 
put to death for their faith, but in no country did 
the persecution of the Mennonites continue so long 
as in Switzerland. The last martyr was Elder (bish- 
op) Hans Landis, the most prominent minister of the 
Swiss Brethren in that period, who was beheaded in 
Zurich, 1614. The persecution, however, continued 
until well into the eighteenth century. Nowhere 
else did the Church show such vitality. Many fled 
from Switzerland to South Germany, France, Hol- 
land, and America. 

The Mennonite pioneers in America were thir- 
teen families from Crefeld, Germany, who came on 
the ship Concord in 1683, and settled at Germantown, 
now a part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During 
the following century many Swiss Mennonites came 
from South Germany (Palatinate) and France, be- 
cause of serious oppression, while others came direct 
from Switzerland. The majority of American Men- 
nonite churches are of Swiss origin. 

Until the beginning of the last century, all 
Mennonites coming to America settled in eastern 
Pennsylvania, whence they spread to other states _ 
and to Ontario. A large immigration of Russian 
and Prussian Mennonites to America took place in 
1874 and the succeeding years. The Russian Menno- 
nites are mostly of Dutch ancestry, their forefathers 


10 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


of the Reformation period having fled from Holland 
to Prussia and Poland whence they emigrated to 
Russia. Yet a number of the Russian Mennonite 
churches in America are of Swiss origin. 


Today Mennonite churches are found in many 
of the states and in provinces of Canada. The 
main body of Mennonites comprises fifteen distinct 
conferences reaching from ocean to ocean, and an 
organized conference in India. Mennonite Publish- 
ing House, located at Scottdale, Pa., takes care of the 
publishing interests of the Church. The Mennonite 
Board of Missions and Charities has its headquarters 
at Elkhart, Ind. Organized mission and charitable 
work is carried on in many places in the home land, 
and there are flourishing missions in India and 
Argentina, S. A. The educational centers of the 
Church are at Goshen, Ind., Hesston, Kans., and 
Harrisonburg, Va. 


The history of the Mennonite Church is the 
story of an imperfect attempt to give first place to 
God and His will, to accept His revelation and pre- 
cept in its entirety regardless of the cost. Human 
imperfections will cling to human endeavor, but God 
and His Word never failed. This was the faith of 
the martyrs; it is the faith that will bring victory 
in our day. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 
Introduction 
I. Life and Labors of Menno Simons.. 13 
II. Mennonite Confession of Faith...... 17 
III. Mennonite General Conference and 
District a Conserencesas nivel. 20 
EV ee Generale Courch@ Activities. 4... fe) 
V. How Mennonites are Confronting the 
Menace of Modernism.......... a 
VI. A Sketch of Very Early Mennonite 
PIAS CV Meet tie one eer ten ree eth ie 42 
VII. The Plockhoy Colony in Delaware.... 44 
VIII. Germantown the First Permanent Men- 
NOMite 4iGolony essa ds eee 47 
IX. The Story of Rudolph Cronau...... 50 
X. Sidelights to Mennonite History..... 53 
XI. Persistent Colonization Movements... 56 
XII. Losses Sustained by the Parent Church 60 
el eee IETS VL EROOTles OU1ES 6 12 ean iatetns 63 
XIV. The Kingdom of Peace and the King- 
elovegs £230 MVS laetcpeee hy RN Nr EA ene 67 
XV. Overtures of Indians Were First 
Peaceful, Then Revengeful...... 71 


XVI. Trials of Mennonites During the Rey- 
olubionarys Wats eet ey hae. 80 


20 


XVII. 


PAAR 
XIX. 


XX. 


XXI. 


XXII. 


XXITI. 


AXIV: 


XXV. 


XXVI. 


XXVIT. 


XXVIII. 


MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


The War of 1812 and the Mexican 
War 
Mennonites During the Civil War.... 
Testing Times During the Great World 
Wharabace Ee A Dis TOG cate Bet eee ea 
Historical Outline of Mennonite Lit- 


See ett ee CP eK Se ee A Oe CR CP Wai yt et NN 


ECTALUL Cha rata cota seas arn fe Goats nha) orn age 
How Mennonites Lived in Former 
(Jenerationsome were ite oeraie shore 
Efforts for Establishing a Reconcilia- 
HOT Re ete ee neces fod heteray's. 
Plans for Establishing General Con- 
ferences Unityes efoto ae ore 
List of American Mennonite Books 
ANC Mr ETIOMICALS Bae waar ose teers 
‘Administrative and Benevolent Institu- 
HONS? Ole THe CADTTE Chevette eters 


Summary of Deaths, with Some Trag- 


ical Events in Mennonite History 
Biographical Sketches of Prominent 
Mennonite Leaders 


eo © € ¢ s € 0 © ¢ © 68 


Foreign Missionaries in 1925......... 


2 PACES iors or ae 
LIFE AND LABORS OF MENNO SIMONS 


This man of God from whom the Mennonite 
Church takes its name was born at Witmarsum, 
Holland, located about four miles from the eastern 
shore of the North Sea. The waves also of the great 
Zuider Zee roll not far away over a large district of 
country where, nearly five hundred years ago, seven- 
ty villages were overflowed and in which many 
thousands of people perished. 

Menno Simons was born near these shores in 
the year 1496. His father and mother were members 
of the Roman Catholic Church. He was educated 
for the priesthood, and into this office he was in- 
stalled at the age of twenty-eight years. In time, 
however, he came to have some positive convictions 
of his own—relative to infant baptism, the eucharist 
partaking of the properties of flesh and blood, and 
elemental water having the efficacy to wash away 
sin. 

He finally made the Word of God and its plain 
teachings, rather than the dogmas of Catholicism, 
his guide to truth. In later years, because of his 
social and religious prominence among the peaceful 
Anabaptists and Waldensian believers, these people 
as a class became known to their friends, and es- 
pecially to their enemies, as “Mennonites.” 

Historians inform us that Menno Simons re- 
ceived baptism on confession of faith from Obbe 
Philip, one of the peace-loving Anabaptist ministers 


14 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


of the Netherlands. This event is said to have oc- 
curred Jan. 12, 1536, and that it was sometime dur- 
ing the following year that he was ordained to the 
ministry by the same person. By this time he was 
obliged to keep much in seclusion and fled from place 
to place to escape death from the hands of enemies. 
A price was put on his head and a written descrip- 
tion of his clothing and personal appearance was 
posted publicly on the church doors. 

It seems unbelievable that so great a reformer 
as Martin Luther should refer to Menno Simons as 
a hedge-preacher, and one of those sneaking fellows, 
who associate themselves with laborers in the har- 
vest fields, or the charcoal burners in the woods. 
This language indicates that Martin Luther never 
got as far away from the Catholic Church as Menno 
Simons did. lLuther’s position was that the Chris- 
tian should fight for his country when he was called 
into the defending ranks. Other reformers, like 
Luther, thought it right to go to war when one’s 
country is invaded, but Menno Simons proclaimed 
to his hearers that under all circumstances it was 
wrong for believers to engage in carnal warfare. 
He also preached the doctrine of absolute separation 
between Church and state and upheld the principle 
that the believer must give to God the things that 
are God’s, and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. 

Menno Simons was the reformer of the reform- 
ers and thus held them to teaching the “all things” 
of the Gospel. They failing to teach a whole Gospel, 
he proved that as reformers in the real sense they 
were not sincere. In giving up the Catholic faith 
he declared that he had renounced all worldly honor, 


OF INFORMATION 15 


and meekly submitted to persecution and the re- 
proach of those who sought to make life hard for 
him. 

His advance to the point when he could make 
this solemn declaration was when he was at the 
age of forty years, and after thirteen years of ser- 
vice had been given to the Roman Catholic Church. 
During the remaining twenty-four years of his life, 
in all his preaching and writings, we see the foun- 
dation principles set forth on which, in the next 
seventy years after his death, his followers were 
able to clearly set forth what are today known as 
the Fighteen Articles of the Mennonite Confession 
of Faath. 

Briefly summed up, the following points appear: 


I. God, as the Creator of all Things. 
II. The Fall of Man and the Entrance of Sin into 
the World. 
Ti: SE of Man through the Promises of 
od. 
IV. The Coming of Christ into the World. 
V. The Gospel Message as given in New Testa- 
ment Scriptures. 
VI. Repentance and the renewed Life in Righteous- 
ness. 
, VII. Holy Baptism for Adults by Pouring. 
VIII. The Visible Church of Christ on Earth. 
IX. Teachers, Deacons, and Deaconesses Chosen by 
the Church. 
X. Emblems of the Sacrament — Bread and Wine. 
5. paras (literally with hands) of the Saint’s 
vot ol 
XII. The State of Matrimony—and Sign of Wo- 
man’s Place in the Church. 
XIII. The Place and Purpose of Civil Authority. 
XIV. On Revenge and Carnal Warfare. 
XV. On Swearing of Oaths. 


16 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


XVI. Separation from disobedient members — the 
Church Ban. 

XVII. Non-Secrecy and Shunning of the Separated. 

XVIII. The Resurrection of the Dead and the last Judg- 

ment. 

Portraits that have appeared in histories of our 
time represent Menno Simons as wearing a full 
beard, the whole scalp being covered by a closely 
fitting skull-cap like that long worn by the monks 
and friars of the mediaeval Church. In these por- 
traits his personal attire shows him to be clothed 
in flowing robes that when standing reach to his 


feet. 


EUAN POL dt 
MENNONITE CONFESSION OF FAITH 


The first account we have of a Confession of 
Faith issued by Mennonites was on April 21, 1632, 
at the time of a peace convention held at Dort in 
Holland. This was signed by fifty-one ministers and 
teachers representing sixteen cities and towns of 
Holland, Lower Germany, the Palatinate and the 
upper country of the Rhine Valley in the following 


order: 
DORT 


Isaac Koenig 
Johann Cobryssen 
Jan Jacobs 

Jacuis Terwin 
Claes Dirksen 
Mels Gysbaerts 
Adrian Cornelis 


ROTTERDAM 


Balden C. Schumacher 
Michael Michiels 
Israel von Halmael 
Heinrich Apeldoren 
Andreas Lucken 


UTRECHT 
Herman Segers 
Jan Heinrich Hochfeld 
Daniel Horens 
Abraham Spronk 
Wilhelm von Brockhuysen 
THE UPPER COUNTRY 
Peter von Borsel 
Anton Hans 
FLISSINGEN 


Dillaert Willeborts 
Jacob Pennen 
Lieven Marymehr 


MIDDLEBURG 
Bastian Willemsen 
Jan Winkelmans 

HARLEM 
John Doom 
Peter Gryspeer 
Dirk Wouters Kolenhamp 
Peter Joosten 
SCHIEDAM 
Cornelis Bam 
Lambrecht Paeldink 
CREVELDT 
Wilhelm Kreynen 
Herman Op den Graff 
GORCUM 
Jacob von Sebrecht 
Jan J. von Kruysen 
ARNHEIM 
Cornelis Jans 
Dirk Renderson 

AMSTERDAM 
Tobias Goverts 
Peter Jansen Mayer 
Abram Dirks 
David Ter Haer 
Peter Jan von Zingel 

BOMMEL 
Wilhelm Jan von Exselt 
Gispert Spiering 


18 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


LEYDEN 
Christian de Kopink 
Jan Weyns 

BLOCKZYL 


Claes Claesson 
Peter Peterson 


ZIRICZEEB 
Anton Cornelis 
Peter Jan Zimmerman 
ZEALAND 


Cornelis de Moir 
Isaac Claes 


Twenty-eight years after—February 4, 1660— 
thirteen ministers and elders met at Ohnenheim, 
Alsace, and after examination found this Confession 
founded on the Word of God, and adopted it entirely 
as their own, and in testimony signed with their 
own hands as follows: 


MAGENHEIM 
John Miller 
ISENHEIM 
Henry Schneider 
OHNENHEIM 
Ulrich Husser 
Jacob Gochnauer 
HEIDELHEIM 
John Ringer 
KUNENHEIM 
Rudolph Egli 


JEPSENHEIM 
John Rudolph Bumen 


KUNENHEIM 
Henry Frick 


BALDENHEIM 
Jacob Schelbly 
MARKIRCH 

Adolph Schmidt 

Jacob Schmidt 

Bertram Habich 
DUERRSANZEN =! 21M 
Jacob Schneider 


These declarations in the form of a Confession 
of Faith were printed in the Dutch language of Hol- 
land in the year 1660 in The Bloody Theatre or 
Martyrs’ Mirror by Thielman J. Van Braght. In the 
year 1748 it was translated into German directed by 
Heinrich Funck and Dielman Kolb at Ephrata, Pa. 

In 1837 the long Confession of Faith of 33 Artt- 
cles was translated into English and published by 
Peter Burkholder of Virginia. It was also translated 
into English in 1859 at Berlin (now Kitchener), 
Ontario, by a committee, representing the Mennonite 


OF INFORMATION 19 


Church in Canada, and still later the Eighteen Arti- 
cles were translated out of the original Dutch lan- 
guage of Holland and published in the Ministers’ 
Manual by Mennonite Publishing Company at Elk- 
hart, Indiana, in 1890. This Confession of Faith is 
still in common use in our churches. 


CHAPTER WLI 


MENNONITE GENERAL CONFERENCE AND 
DISTRICT CONFERENCES 


The Mennonite General Conference is presumed 
to be the supreme governing body in the Church 
and, besides the Mennonite bishops in attendance, 
is made up of a certain number of delegates accord- 
ing to the number of congregations and membership 
in each of the district conferences giving it support.* 
Though it is the highest court of appeal in the 
Church, yet it is not within its province to exercise 
any attitude of direct authority over any district 
conference, except by the consent of said conference. 

Its authority is vested chiefly in the direction 
and over-sight of all boards and committees repre- 
sented in the publication, educational, charitable, 
missionary, and every other spiritual activity of the 
Church at large; also to serve in an advisory ca- 
pacity with reference to district conferences. The 
General Conference has functioned in these various 
capacities in bienninal sessions since the year 1898. 

The district conferences adopt rules and regu- 
lations for governing the Christian life of individual 
members as they are affected by local conditions in 
their various states and districts. Some of these 


* The following Mennonite Conferences have thus far with- 
held official recognition of the Mennonite General Con- 
ference: Franconia, Lancaster, Franklin Co., Pa. and 
Washington Co., Md. 


OF INFORMATION 21 


district conferences were founded and sessions have 
been held regularly for more than a hundred years.f 
This statement holds good particularly with refer- 
ence to the Franconia, Lancaster, and Ontario con- 
ferences, while a number of other of later organi- 
zation have been in regular session for the past 
fifty to seventy-five years. 

The rulings of the district conferences are “the 
decrees for to keep,” especially in every case where 
they are based on the great fundamental doctrines 
of the Bible. Some of these measures are taken to 
meet certain critical issues in the Church and apply 
only to the particular time for which they are pro- 
vided. 

The conference rulings appearing at stated times 
within a generation represent the history-making 
periods in the Church, while the wording is so 
framed that through successive generations one is 
not supposed to conflict with or contradict the other. 
All have been formulated and delivered from time 
to time as the needs arose for their adoption. 

The following table indicates by conferences all 
Mennonites who are known to adhere to the old 
parent body of the Church as it was originally es- 
tablished in America. This includes such congre- 
gations and local conferences of the Amish Menno- 
nites as have merged with local conferences, the 
General Conferences (or both) in maintaining a com- 
mon faith and doctrine, and the support of mission- 
ary effort, publication and educational interests, and 
general relief work in the whole body of the Church. 


+ The oldest conference session on record is one held in 
Eastern Pennsylvania in 1727. 


MENNONITE HANDBOOK 





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Grrl Die Rs hy, 
GENERAL CHURCH ACTIVITIES 


The three leading activities the Church as at 
present constituted are the missionary, educational, 
and publication work. The Mennonite Church has 
an organized Board to look after each of these three 
lines of service, besides a number of General Com- 
mittees which we shall notice briefly in this chapter. 


MENNONITE BOARD OF MISSIONS & CHARITIES 


Looking through the archives of the Mennonite 
Church of a former generation, mention is made of 
J. M. Brenneman being the forerunner of evangelism 
in that body. The first series of meetings held in 
a Mennonite church in America was at Masontown, 
Pennsylvania, in 1873, conducted by Daniel Brenne- 
man (brother of the afore mentioned J. M.) and John 
F. Funk. But the real pioneer in this work who 
more than any one else was instrumental in opening 
up the Church to evangelistic work was John S. 
Coffman, formerly of Virginia but later of Elkhart, 
Indiana. 

The Mennonite Evangelizing and Benevolent 
Board was organized at Elkhart, Indiana, in the year 
1882. The amount contributed during the first year 
was twenty-six dollars and thirty-six cents. But the 
work continued to grow, Evangelistic work became 
common, and later on mission stations were estab- 
lished in Chicago and other cities. 

The great field opening to missionary effort in 


24 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


India moved many Mennonites to lend aid that 
should in some way be an answer to the call coming 
from that far-away land. At a mission meeting held 
at Elkhart, Indiana, Nov. 4, 1898, it was decided to 
send out missionaries to establish a station some- 
where in the famine-stricken fields of India. ‘This 
proved to be an inspirational meeting that brought 
forth great results. 

There were fifteen bishops present who had ar- 
rived from the General Conference just closed at the 
Holdeman Church. The Holy Spirit being unmistak- 
ably manifest, testified; “Separate unto me the two 
brethren for the work whereunto I have called 
them.” 

After a season of profound devotion and prayer, 
the fifteen bishops laid their hands upon the head 
and kneeling form of Jacob A. Ressler, who along 
with his associate, W. B. Page, were duly appointed 
and consecrated as the first missionaries sent by the 
Mennonite Church to a foreign field. 


These brethren, after visiting among the churches 
during the remainder of the year, in February follow- 
ing set sail for their distant field of work. On Nov. 
22, 1899, after a period of some months of prospect- 
ing and study of the general field, a mission station 
was established at Sundarganj near Dhamtari.* Un- 
der the fostering care of the Church in America the 
missionary effort in India has been enlarged and 
extended to other points, until after twenty-five 


* The twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of mission- 
ary endeavor by Mennonites at Sunderganj as well as 
in all India, was celebrated Dec. 27 and 28, 1924. 


OF INFORMATION 25 


years there are a score of workers on the field with 
a native membership of twelve hundred ninety-three. 
This body of believers has for a number of years 
been organized into a conference, in which there 
are two bishops, seven ministers, and seven deacons. 

Since the year 1917 missionary effort has been 
opened in Argentina, South America, where there 
are now six stations, five ministers with their wives, 
and a membership of one hundred fifty-six. This 
body has in recent years been organized into a con- 
ference. 

On May 22, 1906, the Evangelizing and Benevo- 
lent Board merged with the Mennonite Board of 
Charitable Homes and Missions, to form the Menno- 
nite Board of Missions and Charities, and under this 
last organization, all the mission and charitable in- 
terests of the Church are now directed and con- 
trolled. 

Under the auspices of this Board, all the mis- 
sionary activities of the Church became combined 
under one head. it became the duty of this body 
that consists of twenty-five charter members, to see 
that every missionary sent to the home or foreign 
field is spiritually and physically fit for service, and 
along with that, to ascertain as far as possible as to 
whether they are truly and safely grounded on the 
fundamental doctrines taught and upheld by the 
Mennonite Church. | 

By its direction and provision, the American 
Mennonite Mission in India and the Mennonite Mis- 
sion in Argentina, S. A., are being provided from 
time to time with workers, teachers, and. finances. 

Along with these two important foreign mission 


26 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


fields, there are twenty-two mission stations in the 
home field, ever depending on the General Board, 
(as well as the district Boards organized in each of 
our conference districts) for support and encourage- 
ment. These are nearly all located in the larger 
cities of the United States and Canada. 


MENNONITE BOARD OF EDUCATION 


Educational Standing with the 
Early Mennonites 

Among the Mennonites of the first generation 
of those who reached America, numbers of them had 
the benefit of good educational training before they 
left the Fatherland. This fact is verified by the kind 
of books they brought with them and carefully read 
when reaching this country. The ability to produce 
others after their arrival here is another evidence of 
their educational refinement and culture. 

Wherever the pioneer located, originally in 
Pennsylvania and later in Maryland, Virginia and 
Canada, his books seem never to have been left be- 
hind, but were carried with him to whatever nook 
and corner of the New World he journeyed to find 
a home. Among these were usually the large quarto 
size Family Bible, the works of Dirck Philips, the 
large and comprehensive Martyr Book by Van 
Braght, Menno Simons’ works, with also Psalm 
books, prayer books, and hymn books by different 
authors. 

Children were taught to spell and later to read 
and write by the use of a speller and reading book 
combined. The German letters were first learned, 
both in print and script form. From these the slow 


OF INFORMATION : 27 


process of learning the letters, then to spell words, 
and still later to read and write in both forms became 
one of the accomplishments of childhood in every 
Mennonite home. In the early days silent reading 
was not generally the custom, but the rule was for 
some member of the home to read aloud for the 
entertainment of the others. The instrument used 
in writing was the common goose quill pen that was 
dipped in yellowish black ink made from charcoal 
or the well known ink-ball of those times that grew 
on the outer branches of the black oak. 

At a very early period the calendar Almanac 
found a ready place in every pioneer home. There 
were also medical hand-books teaching how to treat 
diseases both in man and beast, while there were 
extant among many German readers of those times 
copies of the One Hundred Years Planetary Almanac. 

With these some English publications were in 
circulation, such as Capt. John Smith’s history of 
Virginia, issued in 1624, Missionary John Eliot’s 
translation of the Bible into the Indian language in 
1663, the New England Primer with Mather’s Cate- 
chism first printed in 1690, with also the Boston 
News Letter, the first newspaper printed in America, 
and which first appeared in 1711. The Virginia 
Gazette, made its first appearance in 1736, and 
last but not least, there was Dr. Benjamin Frank- 
lin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” first published 
at Philadelphia in 1732, and of which its circu- 
lation in the American colonies was ten thousand 
copies annually. In this almanac the month o0? 
March was called “First Month,” and marked the 
beginning of each year, while February was num- 


28 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


bered as “Twelfth Month,” and was the last of the 
year. 

Before and up to this time all paper used in 
America for printing books and newspapers had 
been manufactured in Europe. 

The significant item in the history of the Ameri- 
can colonies appeared in the fact that the first paper 
mill operated in the New World was erected in the 
year 1690 at Germantown, Pennsylvania, by Wilhelm 
Rittenhuysen, a member and first minister in the 
Mennonite Church in America. 


Later Organizations 


Toward the latter part of the nineteenth century 
a very pronounced sentiment developed among the 
Mennonite people in favor of establishing church 
schools for the benefit of such young people as 
desired a higher education. In 1895 the Elkhart 
Institute Association was formed at Elkhart, Indiana, 
and a suitable building was erected known as 
Elkhart Institute. This organization continued in 
existence for ten years, when it disbanded volun- 
tarily and the property passed into the hands of 
the Mennonite Board of Education. In the mean- 
time the Elkhart Institute was sold and a new instt- 
tution built up at Goshen, Indiana, which has since 
been known as Goshen College. 

The Mennonite Board of Education is composed 
of representatives from each of the Mennonite dis- 
trict conferences, three appointed by Mennonite Gen- 
eral Conference, and several members at large elec- 
ted by the Board itself. It meets annually, at some 
centrally located place. At the present time two 


OF INFORMATION 29 


educational institutions are being conducted under 
the auspices of this Board: Goshen College and 
Hesston College and Bible School. The latter insti- 
tution is located at Hesston, Kansas, and was found-. 
ed in 1909. 

The Eastern Mennonite School, located at Harri- 
sonburg, Virginia, and established in 1916, is under 
a separate Board but co-operates very closely with 
the other two church schools. 

It is the purpose of the Mennonite Board of 
Education to oversee and direct the operation of the 
schools sponsored by the Church, along such lines 
as may be considered beneficial to the Church, es- 
pecially her young people. 


MENNONITE PUBLICATION BOARD 


The publication of books and other reading mat- 
ter took form at a very early period in the history 
of the Church. At such time the work was usually 
carried on by certain brethren who assumed all re- 
sponsibility of publication. Others began work with 
or without the sanction of the Church, but received 
its support to a greater or less degree. 

The Mennonite Publication Board was sponsored 
and recognized by the Church in general at the time 
of its organization in April, 1908, at which time also 
the Publishing House was located at Scottdale, 
Pennsylvania. Including basement, the four story 
fire-proof building, with dimensions of 80x 110 feet, 
was erected in 1921 at an initial cost of $125,000, 
and was dedicated April 4, 1922. 

Of the eighty-six different books written by 
Mennonite authors since our people are located in 


30 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


America, along with the fourteen periodicals that 
have been launched since then, all have been issued 
directly or indirectly on religious subjects. Some 
include in their makeup moral, educational, historical, 
and scientific subjects, but behind all appears the 
setting of worship and praise to the God of the Uni- 
verse. 

To a disinterested observer it appears remark- 
able that the dominating spirit in all Mennonite lit- 
erature tends to deal with the serious, grave, and 
weighty things of life. With such a field of litera- 
ture, which it can rightfully claim as its own, the 
Church as a denomination finds its mainstay and 
support for preventing the drift in the direction of 
the whirlpool of worldliness that has become so 
marked a feature with other denominations which 
have wandered far away from the principles of faith 
set forth by their founders, and which were once so 
vigorously upheld by their early adherents. 

The Mennonite Publication Board is composed 
of one representative of each of the Mennonite con- 
ference districts in America, three members appoint- 
ed by the Mennonite General Conference, together 
with the General Manager and Secretary-Treasurer 
of the Mennonite Publishing House. Its mission is 
to keep the Church supplied with a full line of 
Church, Sunday school, and missionary literature, 
through the ministry of literature to strengthen 


every home and foster every enterprise undertaken 
by the Church. 


Mennonite Book and Tract Society 


This institution of the Church was organized in 


OF INFORMATION 31 


May, 1889, with John S. Coffman President, David 
Burkholder Vice President, M. S. Steiner Secretary, 
and G. L. Bender Treasurer. A number of field 
members were also appointed, among whom were 
John W. Weaver, A. D. Wenger, A. D. Martin, and 
John Blosser. 


The object of this institution was to furnish 
books to ministers at cost, and also to establish a 
fund for the printing of tracts and their free distri- 
bution. Under the auspices of this association, be- 
sides over six-hundred tracts that, under as many 
different titles, have been printed by hundreds and 
by thousands and distributed promiscuously by mis- 
sion workers in public gatherings, in the streets of 
cities, towns and villages of the country; books un- 
der various historical and religious titles, with fifty 
to a hundred page pamphlets have been issued and 
sold at a minimum cost to ministers, missionaries, 
mission workers and other religious circles through- 
out the country. 

At the time of the organization of the Mennonite 
Publication Board, the Mennonite Book and Tract 
Society was taken over by that organization and 


merged with the work of the Mennonite Publishing 
House. 


IMPORTANT COMMITTEES 


Historical Committee 

A Church with such deep historical setting in 
the earlier period of the great Reformation that con- 
vulsed all Europe, together with the written accounts. 
of its many leaders and writers, and its extended 


32 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


literary scope, should be able to collect and maintain 
4 large and very valuable library. It is a matter 
of regret that this work has so long been neglected. 
Much valuable material has been permitted to be 
lost. In other countries, notably in Holland, the 
collection of important source material was  be- 
eun many generations ago. The archives of the 
Mennonites of that country contain treasures which 
are of incalculable value. 

A large collection of books, pamphlets, manu- 
scripts, etc., has already been obtained by donation 
and purchase of works that were published in Europe 
and in America. Of the best and largest three col- 
lections of Mennonite literature in America the 
Mennonite Publishing House has recently acquired 
by purchase one of the three, a long time the prop- 
erty of Bro. John F. Funk, Elkhart, Indiana. 

A Library Fund has been authorized with a 

view of securing books and manuscripts essential to 
the study of Menonite history. -The Library is 
located in the fireproof building of the Mennonite 
Publishing House, Scottdale, Pa. 
It is the duty of the Historical Committee to 
collect all material bearing on the history of the 
Church past. and present, for preservation in the 
archives of the Church. Brother John Horsch, as 
the custodian of the library, deserves special credit 
for both the collection and care of the books and 
manuscripts now in hand. 


General Sunday School Committee 


This committee was organized in the year 1917 
under the direction of General Conference. The 


OF INFORMATION 33 


chief purpose in maintaining such a committee was 
for creating unanimity of thought throughout the 
Church in providing the Lesson Quarterlies for Bh 
Sunday schools from -year to year. 

The duty of this committee is to have he gener- 
al oversight of and to direct the activities of the 
Sunday schools throughout the Church. In the mat- 
ter of providing Sunday school literature, this com+ 
mittee co-operates with the Mennonite Publishing 
Committee of the Publication Board. : 


Mennonite Hymns and Music Committee 


The Mennonite Church has the reputation of be- 
ing (perhaps) one of the finest singing denomina- 
tions in America. Having always discarded choir 
singing and the use of musical instruments in public 
worship, the selections of hymns used are invariably 
of the kind for bringing out a full volume of voices 
from a congregation. Its song leaders, even from the. 
early days have been numerous, and their leadership 
seldom failed to inspire whole congregations to sing: 
only sacred music that was of the highest, standard. 

Ever since its organization the General Con- 
ference has recognized a standing Music and Hymns 
Committee which has performed the service of 
choosing and classifying the best hymns in English 
literature, and adapting to them the highest grade 
of sacred music. From time to time they have com- 
piled new standard works for the Church. 

The first committee on Hymns and Tunes was 
composed of Noah Stauffer, M. S. Steiner, and J. P. 
Smucker, appointed at first General Conference held 
at Wakarusa, Indiana, in 1898. At the second Gener- 


34 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


al Conference held at Sterling, Ill., the following 
Hymns’ Committee was appointed: J. S. Shoemaker, 
D. D. Miller, and E. S. Hallman. At the General 
Conference held at West Liberty, Ohio, Oct. 27-29, 
1909, the following were appointed as a standing 
Music Committee: J. D. Brunk, C. Z. Yoder, S. F. 
Coffman, J. B. Smith, and S. 5. Yoder. 


An Advisory Dress Committee 


For the purpose of promoting the cause of scrip- 
tural attire, the Mennonite General Conference ap- 
pointed an advisory dress committee whose duty it 
was to study the problem from various angles and 
bring reports before this body from time to time. 
This committee was kept at work for about ten 
years and was finally dismissed upon completion of 
its work. During this time it submitted four re- 
ports to General Conference, and prepared several 
instructive tracts. Its most important service was 
the compiling of interesting facts and data which 
were published in book form under the title, “Dress.” 


Young People’s Topics Committee 


Young people’s meetings have become an es- 
tablished institution of the Church. To properly 
direct this line of activities and to prepare suitable 
topics for discussion, the Mennonite General Con- 
ference saw it wise to appoint a committee of five 
to take charge of this work. This committee meets 
annually to prepare a list of topics for the follow- 
ing year and submits its work to the Mennonite 
Publishing Committee for final approval. 


eA IS ey, 


HOW MENNONITES ARE CONFRONTING 
THE MENACE OF MODERNISM 


The wave of Modernism which has engulfed so 
many churches and institutions of learning has not 
failed to leave its impress upon certain classes in 
the Mennonite Church. 

Twenty years ago, or more, it began to be evi- 
dent that there were certain educational leaders, then 
members of the Mennonite Church, who had imbibed 
the idea that our doctrinal creed and methods of 
government had become obsolete and out of date 
to such a degree that the entire fabric needed re- 
construction. 

This species of heterodoxy was for years im- 
pressed upon students, and it became evident that 
some of them were imbibing the corroding and dead- 
ly influences of socalled higher criticism. That 
further inroads upon our young people’s faith and 
life might be prevented, the Mennonite Board of 
Education became more alert, adopted more drastic 
measures, until] the official roster and faculty of 
Goshen College was reformed to conform more near- 
ly to the standards of the Church. 

Meanwhile the fundamentals of the Christian 
faith and the dangers from modern liberalism were 
ably discussed in our church papers, in Bible con- 
ferences, from the pulpit, and in a number of books 
written on these subjects. Among these publica- 


36 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


tions may b2 named such books as “Fallacies of 
Evolution,” by J. D. Charles; “The Conservative 
Viewpoint” and “The Mennonite Church and Cur- 
rent Issues,” by Daniel Kauffman; and “Modern 
Religious Liberalism” and “The Mennonite Church 
and Modernism,” by John Horsch. These books 
were put in circulation throughout the Church. 

The Mennonite General Conference likewise put 
itself on record by a carefully prepared statement 
on Christian Fundamentals. While some had gotten 
the idea that these articles of faith were adopted to 
supplant the eighteen articles of faith adopted at 
Dortrecht, Holland, in 1632, that was entirely foreign 
to the aims of our General Conference, as the state- 
ment of Fundamentals which we herewith submit 
was intended to cover an entirely different field. 
The paper adopted at Dort is still the recognized 
Confession of Faith in the Mennonite Church. Fol- 
lowing is the Statement: 

CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALS 


(Adopted by Mennonite General Conference 
August 25, 1921) 


AR TRICIES <) BabA Boi 

In order to safeguard our people from the inroads of 
false doctrines which assail the Word of God and threaten 
the foundation of our faith, we, the Mennonite General Con- 
ference, in regular session assembled at the Sycamore Grove 
Church near Garden City, Missouri, August 25th, 1921, 
herewith make the following declaration regarding the funda- 
mental doctrines of our faith: 

ARTICLE I.—Of the Word of God 

We believe in the plenary and verbal inspiration of the 
Bible as the Word of God; that it is authentic in its matter, 
authoritative in its counsels, inerrant in the original writings, 


OF INFORMATION 37 


and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Ex. 4:12; 
II Sam. 23:2; Ps. 12:6; 119:160; Jer. 1:9; Matt. 5:18; 24:35; 
Piertdin 101 lLa bet witZu.cls 


ARTICLE II.—Of the Existence and Nature of God 


We believe that there is but one God, eternal, infinite, 
perfect, and unchangeable, Who exists and reveals Himself 
in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Deut. 6:4; 
Psa. 90:2; Gen. 17:1; Ps. 147:5; 139:7-12; Isa. 40:28; 57:15; 
Mal. 3:6; Gen. 1:2,18; Heb. 1:8. 


ARTICLE III.—OF the Creation 


We believe that the Genesis account of the Creation is 
a historic fact and literally true. Gen. 1:1,21,27; Ex. 20:11; 
Mk. 10:6-9; Heb. 11:3; Heb. 1:10; 4:4. 


ARTICLE IV.—Of the Fall of Man 


We believe that man was created by an immediate act 
of God, in His own image and after His likeness; that by 
one act of disobedience he became sinful in his nature, 
spiritually dead, subject to physical death and to the power 
of the devil, from which fallen condition he was unable 
to save himself. Gen. 1:26,27; 2:7,16,17; Eph. 2:1-3, 12; 
John 6:44; Rom. 5:6. 


ARTICLE V.—Of Jesus Christ 


We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, 
that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a 
virgin—the perfect God-man; that He was without sin, the 
divinely appointed substitute and representative of sinful man, 
paying the penalty for man’s sins by His death on the cross, 
making the only adequate atonement for sin by the shedding 
of His blood, thus reconciling man to God; that He was 
raised from the dead, ascended to glory, and “ever liveth to 
make intercession for us.” John 1:1,14,18; Heb. 1:8; 13:8; 
Gen, 3:15* Isa. 72145), 15353) Matt. 1:20-252< Isau53:5) 6; 
II Cor. 5:14, 21; Gal. 3:13; I Pet. 2:22, 24; 3:18; Rom. 5:8-10; 
Matt. 28:6; Acts 3:24; 10:39-41; 17:31; I Cor. 15:20; Acts 
Sebi oe Eo olts419'.20-" Revol s18;) Gol? 32) ;-Heb.-.6:20; -L. Jno: 
Belo Pes il ebh.7225: 


38 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


ARTICLE VI.—Of Salvation 


We believe that man is saved alone by grace through 
faith in the finished work of Christ; that he is justified 
from all things on the ground of His shed blood; that 
through the new birth he becomes a child of God, partaker 
of eternal life and blessed with all spiritual blessings in 
Christy} ‘Ephy 2:83) Rom3:20-20: Acts #15208; 0950) Ome roe, 
324, Dil Ore 0.24 aor Olt) 


ARTICLE VII.—Of the Holy Spirit 


We believe in the deity and personality of the Holy 
Spirit: that He convinces the world of Sin, of righteousness 
and of judgment; that He indwells and comforts the be- 
liever, guides him into all truth, empowers for service and 
enables him to live a life of righteousness. Acts 5:3, 4; 
LI Cor cc3 l/s aiome0:7 78-1328) oGornias16 mdi Oe ee 
1:8; Rom. 8:1-4. 


ARTICLE VIII—O£ Assurance 


We believe that is is the privilege of all believers to 
know that they have passed from death unto life; that God 
is able to keep them from falling, but that the obedience of 
faith is essential to the maintenance of one’s salvation and 
Srowth.-inverace lo {nO 014295: 1 3 eon LO ee or 
12 Os Jude 24. 255 Rooter lO25 52659 hoes Grail och noe bor ee 
io Petipa 


ARTICLE IX.—Of the Church 


We believe that the Church is the body of Christ, com- 
posed of all those who, through repentance toward God, 
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, have been born again 
and were baptized by one Spirit into one body, and that 
it is her divinely appointed mission to preach the Gospel 
to every creature, teaching obedience to all His command- 
ments. Matt. 16:18; Eph. 1:23; Col. 1:18; Acts 20:21;. Luke 
24:47: Acts 17:30; 16:31; Gal'3:26; TU Cor. 12:13; Matt 3283193 
20; Mk. 16:15; Acte* 1:8. 


ARTICLE X.—Of Separation 


We believe that we are called with a holy calling to a 
life of separation from the world and its follies, sinful prac- 


OF INFORMATION 3D 


tices and methods; further that it is the duty of the Church 
to keep herself aloof from all movements which seek the 
reformation of society, independent of the merits of the 
death of Christ and the experience of the new birth. I Pet. 
2 Or Tat re lel4el1 (Cor6:14-18" Rome 12:1; 2 Ephag:ti; ] 
nose: lo-l72 11 Thes.°3:6;" Acts? 42122 Jno. 3:3)6,7: 


ARTICLE XI.—Of Discipline 


We believe that the Lord has vested the Church with 
authority in accordance with Scriptural teaching: (1) to 
choose officials, (2) to regulate the observance of ordinances, 
(3) to exercise wholesome discipline, and (4) to organize and 
conduct her work in a manner consistent with her high call- 
ing and essential to her highest efficiency. Acts 6:1-6; 13:1-3; 
Pid irs it eo-9c ete eMart. 42819920; 18:15-18; 
Ephn 4:11216%-Heb. 1o:17-aActs* 14:21-23;37 2:15. 


ARTICLE XII.—Of Ordinances 


We believe that Christian baptism should be adminis- 
tered upon confession of faith; that the Lord’s Supper should 
be observed as a memorial of His death by those of like 
precious faith who have peace with God; that feetwashing 
as an ordinance should be literally observed by all believers; 
that Christian women praying or prophesying should have 
their heads covered; that the salutation of the holy kiss 
should be duly and appropriately observed by all believers; 
that anointing with oil should be administered to the sick 
who call for it in faith; that marriage between one man and 
one woman is a divine institution dissoluble only by death, 
that on the part of a Christian it should be “only in the 
Lord,” and that consistency requires that the marriage re- 
lation be entered only by those of like precious faith. Acts 
2:38: 8:12; 18:8;. Luke 22:19, 20; I Cor. 11: 23-28; John 13:1- 
7: I Cor. 11:2-16; 16:20; Jas. 5:14-16; Mk. 10:6-12; Rom. 7:2; 
Lo Cor. 64:39 “Amos 343: 


ARTICLE XIII.—Of Restrictions 


We believe that all Christians should honor, pray for, 
pay tribute to, and obey in all things those who are in 
authority in state and nation, provided however, that should 


40 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


instances arise in which such obedience would violate the 
higher law of God, “we ought to obey God rather than man,” 
that Church and State are separate, and while believers are 
to be subject to, they are not a part of the civil, adminis- 
trative powers; that it is contrary to the teachings of Christ 
and the apostles to engage in carnal warfare; that Christians 
should ‘adorn themselves in modest apparel, not with broid- 
ered hair or gold or pearls or costly array;” that the swear- 
ing of oaths is forbidden in the New Testament Scriptures; 
that secret orders are antagonistic to the tenor and spirit 
of the Gospel; and that life insurance is inconsistent with 
filial trust in the providence and care of our heavenly Father. 
DA Peti 2 orl 417 iRomeds ft/s nh ee sb eee CES wee 
Matt. 22:21; Mk. 10:42-44; Jno. 18:36; II Cor. 10:4; I Tim. 
2:9; 107 Ty Pet 2.5 055 pd Mattst 9164-378 Jas vo rc) ol COMMS ay 
Eph, (5:il 1 2ssale ites a2 7 Gal 621069 ier 9 403tt een, 
Raha We 
ARTICLE XIV.—Of Apostasy 


We believe that the latter days will be characterized by 
general lawlessness and departure from the faith; that on 
the part of the world “iniquity shall abound” and “evil men 
shall wax worse and worse;” that on the ‘part of the Church 
there will be a falling away and “the love of many shall 
wax cold;” that false teachers shall abound, both deceiving 
and being deceived; and further, that present conditions 
indicate that we are now living in these perilous times. I 
TimgAliegs Roms WO:l/ 18. abe Lime aise love rie bet were 
CG Mattz24 4112-4 al hese s3: 


ARTICLE XV.—Of the Resurrection 


We believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ 
and in the bodily resurrection of all men, both of the just 
and the unjust—of the just to the resurrection of life, and 
of the unjust to the resurrection of condemnation. Jno. 
20:20, 24-29; Luke 24:30, 31; I Cor. 15:42-44; Acts 24:15; Jno. 
§:28--29-4T Cor 1715-20-23: 

ARTICLE XVI.—Of the Coming of Christ 


We believe in the personal, imminent coming of our 
Lord as the blessed hope of the believer, that we who are 


OF INFORMATION 41 


alive and remain, together with the dead in Christ, who will 
first be raised, shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the 
air and thus ever be with the Lord. Jno. 14:2,3; Acts 1:11; 
Matt. 24:44; Heb. 10:37; Tit. 2:11-13; I Thes. 4:13-18. 


ARTICLE XVII.—Of the Intermediate State 


We believe that in the interval between death and resur- 
rection, the righteous will be with Christ in a state of con- 
scious bliss and comfort, but that the wicked will be in a 
place of torment, in a state of conscious suffering and de- 
spair. Lu. 16:19-31; 23:43; Phil. 1:23; II Cor. 5:1-8; I Thes. 
pet0se bls Pet2:90(R-& V2): 


ARTICLE XVIII.—Of the Final State 


We believe that hell is the place of torment, prepared 
for the devil and his angels, where with them the wicked 
will suffer the vengeance of eternal fire forever and ever and 
that heaven is the final abode of the righteous, where they 
will dwell in the fullness of joy forever and ever. Matt. 
25:41, 46; Jude 7; Rev. 14:8-11; 20:10,15; II Cor. 5:21; Rev. 
2123-82 1=5, 


GHAPTER V1 


A SKETCH OF VERY EARLY MENNO- 
NITE HISTORY 


From beyond the cognizance of human history 
North America has been occupied by the copper- 
colored race, who, as a people, have been recognized 
by the earliest discoverers and explorers as Indians, 
supposing that the new found lands they occupied, 
was India, a portion of the eastern extremity of 
Asia. 


It was not until Balboa had discovered the Pa- 
cific Ocean in 1613 or until Magellan had circum- 
navigated the globe in 1621 that the truth dawned 
upon the inhabitants of Europe that the aborigines 
found here by white men, occupied an entirely new 
continent that became known to them as The New 
World, and later took the name of one of the ex- 
plorers of its shores—America. 


The new country, in time received settlements 
along its eastern borders by at least three distinct 
classes of people; adventurers, treasure hunters, and 
religious outcasts from Europe. Of these, four dis- 
tinct nationalities, with their marked differences in 
language, customs and general habits in life, were 
represented—Spanish, English, French, and Ger- 
man or Dutch. With the latter class, with which 
some Swiss colonists were included, were the Menno- 
nites, who located principally in Pennsylvania, but 


OF INFORMATION 43 


in smaller numbers in the adjoining states of New 
York, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. 


It is not definitely known when and where the 
first Mennonites set foot on the shores of America, 
but it appears that with the invasion of the Dutch 
settlements at New Amsterdam, now New York, 
in 1664, there had for some years previous been 
located with them a community of Mennonites. 
After the occupation of New Amsterdam by the 
English, these people crossed over to the Long 
Island side in search of homes where they would 
not come in direct contact with their new English 
neighbors. 


The place they selected for their home was at 
Gravesend, several miles out from the Brooklyn 
shore, by the forks of a stream flowing southward 
into the lower portion of New York Bay. As at 
Germantown, Pa., some twenty years later, the col- 
ony at Gravesend consisted of both Quakers and 
Mennonites who conducted public worship together 
by the men taking turns to read from the Scriptures 
on Sabbath days. This became necessary because 
it appears that at no time a minister had been 
provided for the colony. 

The place, like Germantown, has the historical 
distinction of having been the scene of a battle 
ground during the period of the Revolutionary War. 
Both the name of the place as well as the settlement 
itself, is now included within the Borough of Brook- 
lyn and hence there is little if anything left to show 
where possibly was located the earliest Mennonite 
community in America. 


GHAPPE RG Wait 


THE PLOCKHOY COLONY IN DELAWARE 


The story of locating a colony of Waldensian 
and Mennonite people in the southern part of the 
state of Delaware suggests to the reader an interest 
if not an awakening in him to feelings of sympathy 
and compassion, equal to those held for the French 
settlers who were expelled to the number of seven 
thousand souls from their homes in Acadia on the 
eastern shores of Canada, and who were distributed 
in the British colonies along the Atlantic coast from 
Massachusetts to Louisiana. 


Historians are able to find scanty and only dis- 
connected accounts of the very early settlements 
that were made by Mennonites in Delaware. It is 
stated that in the year 1656, three hundred Wal- 
densians located on the Horekill Inlet. The name is 
applied to the long estuary extending from Lewes 
Cape for five miles in a southeasterly direction to 
the town of Lewes, a place of 2,000 population today. 
Others think the name Horekill Inlet is the mouth of 
the stream, now marked on modern maps as Broad- 
hill Creek. 


It is also mentioned that as early as 1663, one 
Cornelius Plockhoy, himself a Mennonite from Am- 
sterdam, Holland, established a settlement here with 
forty-one of his followers. This colony had not been 
established for much over twelve months before 
English vessels arrived, and finding that the resi- 


OF INFORMATION 45 


dents were of Dutch nationality, the place was plun- 
dered and the colonists deported to English settle- 
ments in other states, and thus meeting the same 
fate as the Acadians, when households were broken 
up and members of families scattered to regions 
unknown to each other. 

Plockhoy and his wife were the only survivors 
of this settlement that were definitely heard from. 
After some years of wanderings, in 1694, after both 
had become old and dependent, they reached the 
community at Germantown, Pa., where they were 
provided for and rendered comfortable during the 
remainder of their lives. 

The fact that people of Dutch nationality settled 
in Virginia as early as the year 1669 suggests the 
strong probability that these were members of the 
original colony in the state of Delaware. Further 
evidence in proof of this being the case appears in 
some maps issued as early as 1687, while correspon- 
dence in possession of Dr. Julius F. Sachse of Phil- 
adelphia indicates that German settlements were lo- 
cated on the headwaters of the Rappahannock river 
and that the place is marked on the map as 
“Teutsche Staat.” 

It is shown also that this place was visited oc- 
casionally by Mennonites from Pennsylvania and that 
the settlement was augmented in number by families 
from that state who came here to secure land claims 
for permanent residence. 

Robert Beverly, one of the early Virginian his- 
torians, relates that this settlement was located in 
full view of “The Blue Mountains,” and that the 
people who resided there were thrifty and happy, 


46 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


and that they planted orchards and vineyards on 
their premises. 

Some years ago the writer visited this locality 
and found that almost every possible trace of the 
community had disappeared. Where once were long 
lines of residences, stores, taverns, and mills there 
is nothing left but a few old wells, some broken 
down walls, and embankments to mark the spot. 
Cherry trees now grow wild in the woods that have 
overgrown the place, while the growth and size of 
the timber would indicate that the place has been 
abandoned for more than a hundred years. 


CHAPTER VIII 


GERMANTOWN THE FIRST PERMANENT 
MENNONITE COLONY 


The first colony of Mennonites in America to 
stand the test of permanency was established at 
Germantown, Pennsylvania, late in the year 1683. 
Of the first arrivals there were thirteen men and 
their families, making a total of thirty-three persons. 
These all boarded ship at Rotterdam, the principal 
seaport of the Netherlands. After a ten weeks voy- 
age, taking final passage from London, England, 
they arrived at Philadelphia October 6, 1683. One 
of their number died during passage, two children 
were born while the vessel was at sea. 

Their first habitations at Germantown were in 
the form of either rude log dwellings with cellars, 
or dugouts and caves without dwellings. The first 
minister and bishop who served the Mennonite 
Church in America was Wilhelm Rittenhuysen, and 
the first period of worship known to have been held 
was conducted at the home of Dennis Kunders, 
where all of the original thirteen families are said 
to have assembled. Jans Neus is mentioned as the 
first deacon to serve the Church in America. The 
first baptismal service known to have been held 
here was on Sunday May 9, 1708, and the first re- 
corded communion meeting was held May 23, 1708. 


Within the first year after the establishment of 
the colony, the first death occurred, the mother of 


48 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


the three Opdengraff brothers. The first Mennonite 
meeting house in America was built at Germantown 
of logs in the year 1708. The same building was 
also used as a schoolhouse. It was here that the 
first Mennonite school teacher taught the children 
to read and write and to conduct themselves after 
the order of Christian etiquette. 

The deed for the ground on which the meeting ~ 
house was erected bears date of Sept. 6, 1714, and 
was given by Henry Seller. The names of other 
ministers who served the Church during the early 
days were Jacob Funk, Andrew Zeigler, and John 
Minnich. Andrew Zeigler in later years became 
bishop, and it is probable that it was in his time 
that the second recorded communion service was 
conducted at Germantown, at which time it is known 
that there were forty-seven members belonging to 
the congregation. The following list, taken from 
the Family Almanac of 1875, printed at Elkhart, Ind., 
by John F. Funk and Brother, are names of those 
who were present at this communion. 

‘Jacob Funk and Ann his wife 

Jacob Rittenhouse 

Jacob Knorr and Hannah his wife 
Catharine Funk 

Andrew Kolb 

Henry Moyer 

Abram Kolb and Ann his wife 
John Funk and Catharine his wife 
Joseph Schreiber and Mary his wife 
Andreas Merewine and Ann his wife 
Christian Benner 

Samuel Funk 

Isaac Kulp Jr. 

Jacob Kulp 

Sarah Rittenhouse 


Susanna Nice (Granny) 
Barbara Kolp 


OF INFORMATION 49 


Teeny Engle 

Barbara Kolp Jr. 
Keteurah Benner 
Elizabeth Funk 

Barbara Funk (Widow) 
Catharine Funk 

Ann Funk 


The following names are members of this con- 
gregation that are recorded as having been absent 


from this communion. 
Margaret Smith Margaret Rittenhouse 
Susanna Knorr John Keyser 
Jacob Kolb Elizabeth Keyser 
Anna Benner Dillman Kolb 
Hester Funk Hannes Schneider 


David Getter Isaac Benner 
John Minnich Abram Benner. 


John Rife 


CHAPTERS TX 
THE STORY OF RUDOLPH CRONAU 


The great forward movement of German emi- 
gration to America by way of the sea-ports of Phil- 
adelphia and New York, the story of such as landed 
at the latter place has long been very meager in the 
details, until we have the account related by Rudolph 
Cronau. It is related by him that all emigrants who 
took ship for New York were Palatinates from the 
Rhine valley, and that among them were people of 
different religious faith—including, as is subsequent- 
ly shown, numbers of whom were Mennonites who, 
aiter enduring great distress and privation in New 
York, a remnant finally joined company with their 
brethren in settlements in Pennsylvania. The fol- 
lowing extracts written by Cronau and published in 
1901 at Boppard am Rhine by Otto Maisel, are 
here presented in an English translation made by 
Dr. John W. Wayland in 1907 while at the Univer- 
sity of Virginia: 

“It was in the spring of 1709 that the Rhine became 
the theater of one of the most extraordinary events. All 
floating craft in the shape of rafts, skiffs, boats, and other 
vessels went gliding down the beautiful stream, all laden 
with unfortunate people who with their bundles, boxes, and 
chests were carrying with them the few things they still 
possessed. These emigrants took ship in Holland, passed 
over from there to England, where they tarried at London, 
to obtain from the English government a passage to North 


America. 
“Here there were soon assembled from 13,000 to 14,000 


OF INFORMATION 51 


Palatinates. It was. found that the government did not 
have ships enough to transport so great a multitude, when 
by the beginning of winter, the miseries of the waiting 
multitude became constantly greater, which in consequence 
caused the death of about a thousand persons. Under such 
circumstances some remedy for the state of affairs had to 
be provided. 

“With this arrangement several thousand of the un- 
fortunates were shipped back to Holland and Germany. 
Some three thousand eight hundred were taken over to 
Ireland to aid in the weaving industry there. Six hundred 
were sent to the Carolinas, while over three thousand took 
ship for New York. But two thousand, two hundred and 
twenty seven of these reached their destination on the 
Hudson, for four hundred and seventy persons died of ship- 
fever during the voyage. Two hundred and fifty more 
perished on Governor’s Island where they had been detained 
for several weeks in bad lodgings under the suspicion that 
they were taken with contagious disease. 


“When finally this frightful quarantine was lifted, these 
Palatinate survivors were led to hope that their worst diffi- 
culties were overcome. Following their release they 1lo- 
cated in two camps near the Hudson river not so far away 
from the Catskill mountains, in the state of New York, 
where for some time they passed a most wretched existence. 


“With the slender hope held out to them to obtain re- 
lief, they determined to take advantage of an offer made 
them by some Indian chiefs from the Valley of the Scho- 
harie. In March of the year 1713 they set out on their 
journey thither, which on account of the difficulties of the 
route required fourteen days of travel. This was rendered 
most difficult because they had no draft animals and no 
wagons to transport the baggage, the women, the children, 
and the sick. All property had to be carried by hand or 
on the back, while in the meantime far and wide there lay 
a deep snow over the country. When finally the poor 
wanderers reached the beautiful Schoharie, they had noth- 
ing to live on, and they would in all probability have starved, 
had not the Indians taken pity on them and provided them 


52 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


with game until the disappearance of the snow and the 
coming of spring. 

“Possibly no settlement of pioneers in America was 
begun under greater distress of circumstances. There were 
no plows or other farming implements. Houses were built 
of rough unhewn tree trunks, and clothing was made from 
skins of animals killed for them by the Indians. In this 
way the poor creatures dragged along till the following 
autumn, when the meager corn crop afforded some relief. 
Even this had to be beaten on stones in order to be pre- 
pared in any way for food. 

“By the close of the year 1714, it developed that they 
could not hold their land on the Schoharie which had been 
offered them as a gift by the Indians. The majority of the 
survivors decided to migrate once more. Others continued 
to struggle for existence on the Schoharie and in later 
years became founders of a number of the now larger towns 
and villages of that valley and on the Mohawk. The residue, 
after a series of wanderings down the valley of the Susque- 
hanna, found new and more permanent homes with people 
of like religious faith and nationality in the Mennonite settle- 
ments of Pennsylvania.” 


GAP TER WX 


SIDE LIGHTS TO MENNONITE HISTORY 


After the first permanent colonies had been 
established by Mennonites at Germantown, Skip- 
pach, Lancaster, and other points in Pennsylvania, 
as referred to in previous chapters, there came the 
strong inclination, in the hope of obtaining the 
choicest lands and freedom from molestation from 
neighbors of different nationality, for our people to 
penetrate farther into the interior of the country. 
William Penn’s treaty with the Indians had the 
effect for Quakers and Mennonites to feel entirely 
immune from attack and readily choose to neighbor 
with the Indian and share with him a common 
hunting ground. 


This venturesome spirit took many of our 
Mennonite people far beyond the border of regular 
settlements, and in fact some groups of families 
often located in the deeper recesses of the wilderness. 
In this way Mennonites found their way at very 
early periods into sections of the Cumberland valley 
of Pennsylvania and Maryland and the Shenandoah 
valley of Virginia, and where, for a whole generation, 
not a drop of Quaker or Mennonite blood was ever 
shed at the hands of the Indians. 


At such times and with the really primitive 
conditions by which they were surrounded, each 
Mennonite home could worship the God of heaven, 
and earth under its own vine and forest tree. 


54 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Where it was convenient, two or more families 
joined in a season of worship on Sabbath days. In 
such homes the large quarto-sized family Bible held 
first place on the center table. Still there were other 
books constituting the library of these pioneer homes, 
such as the Book of Martyrs, Psalm books and 
Prayer books, the Wandering Soul and others, most 
if not all of which were in German, and were brought 
along over seas from Europe. 

Up until a certain period in the History of 
America it is evident that as a nonresistant and non- 
proselyting people the Mennonites are known to 
have more often fallen victims to persecution and 
disturbance from their white brethren of different 
customs and practices from their own, than from 
Indian attack. 

It is evident that the six hundred Palatinates 
who were sent to the Carolinas as mentioned in the 
story of Rudolph Cronau, penetrated into the in- 
terior of the states until they came in full view of 
the Blue mountains in what are now Guilford, 
Yadkin, Watauga and Catawba counties, where the 
family names of Heatwole, Hildebrand, Weaver, etc., 
prevail that are familiar with Mennonites in other 
states. 

This section of North Carolina, in years past, 
was visited by John S. Coffman, M. S. Steiner, J. F. 
Brunk, and C. K. Hostetler, and they found people 
who were religiously nonresistant in sentiment and 
faith, but otherwise and to all appearance have long 
since been swept wholly into the common mould 
of Americanism. 


OF INFORMATION 


q 
jas Ka te 
Hs North Dakets 

. me Sovth Dakota 

Kensas ona 
Missouri 
bouislang 
Mississ ip a 

= ———— 
Tennessee 


x 
S 


West Virginia 


Virginia 





55 


GHAR AER eT 
PERSISTENT COLONIZATION MOVEMENTS 


The inclination on the part of many Mennonites 
to keep well to the fore in finding homes along the 
wilderness border has as a rule been westward, with 
however some arms from the main body in Pennsyl- 
vania extending northwestward to New York and 
Canada. 

Another strong arm reached southward into 
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee. 
However, the main trunk of the imigration move- 
ment has sent its strongest growths into Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Ne- 
braska; while the main stem continued its growth 
still westward into Colorado and finally extended 
its topmost branches across the mighty Rocky 
mountains to states of the Pacific slope. In the 
meantime, other branches have gone far southward 
into Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, 
and Texas. 

Other branches also now reach forth into the 
Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota and the provinces of 
northwest Canada, until our people have become 
permanently located in twenty-six of the states and 
four of the Canadian provinces. 

A glance at the great tree accompanying this 
chapter readily shows how it established its main 
stock with the year 1632 in Europe, and how this, 
for several generations grew in two separate trunks 





) 
, 


‘. / 
WA Se ee 


nd 
; , 
is 
erur 
r “A 
4 
* L 
y 
| 
= i 
- 


* 


Sur 
we 
* 


NN mete wet wy 


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: ‘ 
4 hee 
wig sat 
a 
vary 
ak he 
Pont 
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s aa ce 









OF INFORMATION 57 


in America, and which by love according to the 
law of ingrafting the two trunks became united in 
one on the principles of General Conference unity. 

The following table may be the means for giving 
the reader a comprehensive grasp of Mennonite colo- 
nization in America as developed from time to time 
in each of the states and provinces where they are 
now located. In the more populous states only a 
few of the congregations are named. 





~~ Location *When First Families Inducements for 
of Colony Founded to Locate Colonization 
Germantown, Pa. |1683|Jansen, Kassel, Keyser|Upland, Much 
Kunders, Rittenhuysen| Timber, Many 
Springs 
Skippack, Pa, 1702|Jacobs, Kolb, Kuster |Perkiomen Creek 
Van Bebber, Penny- | Beautiful Valley 











backer 
Pequea, Pa. 1710|Kendig, Funk, Herr, |Black Soil 
| Oberholtzer Good Timber 
The Swamp, Pa. |1717|Clemmer, Drissel, Limestone Land 
Musselman 
Shenandoah 1729| Brubaker, Funk, Southern Climate 
Valley, Va. Kauffman, Rhodes Heavy Timber 
Cumberland 1730| Bechtel, Danner, Productive Land 
Valley, Pa. Lehman Conococheauge 


Creek 
Deep Run, Pa. [|1746!Gross, Wismer, Kulp,,\Smooth Land 
| Godschalk, Sauder 
Chester Co., Pa. |1750!Stauffer, Haldeman, Beautiful Springs 
Bender, Crabill 
Mork 0.2.ba- 1753| Trieber, Reiff, Bear, |Many Streams— 


Kauffman, Shenk Limestone Soil 
Washington 1755'Burkhart, Barr, Reiff, Smooth Land 
CO. NG. Good, Strite, Shank Many Springs 
Johnstown, Pa. /|1767|Blauch, Kauffman, Good Timber 
Johns, Webber Fine Soil 
Juniata 1772|Graybill, Moyer, Lau-)Fine Scenery 
Valley, Pa. | ver, Winey, Shellen-| Choice Lands 


berger 
Casselman Val., {1780|Beechy, Miller, Bender|Rich Lands 
Meyersdale, Pa. 


* Most of these dates are taken from reliable records. Others are 
estimated dates and may not be correct. 


58 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 














Location *When First Families | Inducements for 
of Colony Founded to Locate Colonization 
Lincoln Creek, [1786|Fretz, Kratz, Kulp English Gov't. 
Canada | 
Greenbriar 1787|Coffman, Fry, Wenger|Big Levels of 
Gon WW va. Greenbriar Val. 
Fayette Co., Pa, |1790!Johnson, Bixler, Durr,/Redlands of the 
Bare, Barnhart Monongahela 
Westmoreland 1790|\Funk, Loucks, Over-!Tillable Soil 
Colma: holt; -Stauffec, *Sher- 


rick 
Waterloo, Can. {1800|Betzner, Burkholder, |Cheap Rich Land 
Eby, Moyer, Wisner| English Laws 


Fairfield Co., O. {1805|Beery, Brenneman, Rich Soil 
Shenk, Steman Fine Timber 
Mahoning 1815|Bixler, Good, Nold, |Fine Rich Soil 
Gon); | Metzler, Basinger 
Stark Gon o. ah Lehman, Oberly, Excellent Timber 
Rohrer Deep Soil 


Erie Co., N. Y. |1824| Frick, Lieb, Lehman, |Nearby Markets 
Martin, Lapp, Witmer 

Medina Co., O. |1825!Hoover, Overholt, Sectionized 
Tintsman, Wideman; Country 

Wayne Co., O. |1834|Brenneman, Buckwal-|Fine Smooth 
ter, Rohrer, Horst Lands 

Allen Co., O, 1842; Brenneman, Good, Prairie Laid out 
Thut, Steman, Shenk} in Sections 

Elkhart Co., Ind. |1848/Smith, Hoover, Holde-|Black Prairie 


man, Weldy, Wisler,| Lands 
Funk, Nussbaum, 





Weaver 
Livingstone 1857| Heckman, Graybill, Black Prairie 
Commit. |Harshbarger, Herstein} Lands 
Henry Co., Ill. [1864)Brunk, Driver, Funk, |Great Corn Belt 
Rodgers 
Whiteside Co., 1865| Ebersole, Heckley, Famous Black 
Ill. Nice, Snavely Lands 
Stephenson 1865|Brubaker, Groff, Lapp,|High Rolling 
Career ts Shoemaker Prairie 
McPherson and {1870)Brunk, Evers, Wenger,|] Homestead Land 
Marion Co., Kan. Holdeman, Rodgers, 
Good 
Morgan Co., Mo. |1865|Brundage, Good, Good Lands at 
Kauffman Cheap Prices 


Jasper Co., Mo. |1875|Brenneman, Weaver 
Keokuk Co., Ia. |1881}Lineweaver, Wenger /|Great Corn Belt 
Knox Co., Tenn, |1881|Blosser, Good, Stoltz-/ The Sunny South 
fus, Newhouser, 
| | Smoker 


OF INFORMATION 


59 
Colonization 
Homestead Land 
Fishing Shore 


Great Lumber 
Camps 


"Location | *When{ First Families | Inducements for 
of Colony Founded to Locate | 
Shelby Co., Mo. |1870|Lapp, Brubaker, Det- 
weiler, Hershey 
Warwick Co., 1899| Yoder, Hahn, Shenk, 
Va. Brunk 
Joba OW .-.Va- 1901/Flubacher, Smith, 
- White 
Carstairs, Can. {1901/Shantz, Wenger, Cress- 


isan) untae Colo. 
Hubbard, Oreg. 
Nampa, Ida. 


N. W. Canada 
Cresston, Mont. 


Ulen, Minn. 


Minot, N. Dak. 


Woodford, N. D. 


Coalridge, Mont. 
Filer, Ida. 


Gulfport, Miss. 


| 





—____ 





man 
1902 Brunk, Kiser, Rhodes, 


Rich 
1902|Mishler, Roth, Erb, 


Neuswander 


1905|Thut, Garber, Hilty, 


1906 


1912 


1915| Kauffman, 
1908} 





Shenk 


Bricker, Kolb, Stauffer 
Roth, Hoylman, Kauff- 


man 
Mast, 
grich, Yoder 


Gin- 


1908) Hochstetler, Stauffer 
1909|Kauffman, Hostetler 
1915|Detweiler, Honderich {Great Sheep 


1920|Brunk, Geil, Buck- 


walter 


Great Wheat Belt 

Resort for Con- 
sumptives 

Fine Climate 


Fruit and Bee 
Culture 

Great Wheat Belt 

Fertile Valley 


The Open 
Northwest 
The Wheat and 
Oats Belt 
Broad Prairies 
The Far North 





Ranches 

Sunny Southern 
Skies, Cheap 
Lands 


CHAPTERSXIT 


LOSSES SUSTAINED BY THE PARENT 
CHURCH 


The foregoing list of settlements and accompany- 
ing map, indicate the location of congregations of 
the class of Mennonite people who have sprung 
directly from the parent stem of the Church that 
was originally planted in the state oi Pennsylvania, 
and retained membership in the same church after 
locating elsewhere. In the early days a number 
of colonies were established in different sections of 
that state, and in the adjoining states of Maryland 
and Virginia. 

After a second generation had grown up, the 
number of Mennonites in America became greatly 
augmented by the Amish element that located in 
large numbers in Pennsylvania, as well as in Qhio, 
Indiana, and Illinois. In the meantime the seeds 
of disunion began to germinate and grow to the 
extent that certain leaders took the unwise course 
of separating themselves from the main body, when 
in such case the foment and disturbance that was 
created, became the cause for certain adherents to 
withdraw voluntarily, or suffer themselves to be 
expelled from the main body. Hence, none of the 
branches so separated, have been enumerated in 
the first of the foregoing tables, but have all been 
assembled in the second table. 


Adherents to the main branch having always 


OF INFORMATION 61 


been a non-resistant and a non-proselyting body, it 
was never supposed to maintain membership from 
material coming from denominations other than 
from its own offspring. Along with this, the pre- 
caution was not taken in time for safeguarding the 
rising generation in the language and educational 
training of the forefathers. hick een 

Because of these and other failings of the Church 
to do her whole duty to her offspring, it may be 
truthfully asserted that no other denomination in 
America has suffered as fearful reverses as have 
the Mennonites. No other Christian body perhaps, 
has sustained a greater proportionate loss in number, 
both by dismemberment from the parent body, and 
from material rightfully to be claimed as her own, 
going from her borders as a contributing growth to 
other denominations. This tremendous drain upon 
her material as shown by the second table, to say 
nothing of what has gone elsewhere, has brought on 
a condition by which she can number her adherents 
only by thousands today, where there might have 
been millions! 

A Church that has been able, in the face of 
such tremendous losses, with the insurmountable 
difficulties in the past that were to be overcome, and 
still hold fast to its integrity in spite of the great 
disadvantage of being scattered over twenty-six 
states and three Canadian provinces, must yet have 
a golden future before it. God surely has wonderful 
things in store for a people whose pathway in the 
past has been so strewn with misfortunes. A church 
that could survive through such a long trail of fiery 
trials and ordeals is yet destined to rise. 


62 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


The past is irrecoverable, the dim future may 
yet show up its uncertainties; but the present 1s 
still ours, and may God give our leaders a sustain- 
ing grace to meet the oppositions and perplexities of 
each day and year as they come. May our vision of 
the future never be dimmed or obscured by op- 
portunities lost, or the failure to realize the rewards 
of duties well done. 


Ola bs Weds Oe Gea 
OTHER MENNONITE BODIES 


Following is a list of bodies that have either 
seceded from the Mennonite Church in America, or 
came from Europe as independent bodies, or are sub- 
divisions of bodies that had previously seceded from 
the parent church. Though clinging to the name 
Mennonite, in some form, they are not in fellowship 
with the parent body, in some cases differing widely 
from it in faith and practice. 

1. Amish Mennonites (Old Order) —followers 
of Jacob Ammon, a Mennonite bishop in Europe who 
was separated from his brethren about the year 1692. 
Under the leadership of Jacob Hertzler and others, 
many of these came to America a few decades later. 
Latest statistics assign this church 84 bishops, 231 
ministers, 55 deacons, and 7746 members. 

2. Reformed Mennonites—organized in 1811 by 
John Herr and others. At present this church is 
credited with 20 places of worship, 15 bishops, 33 
ministers, 16 deacons, and 2794 members. 

3. Stauffer People—organized in 1846 by Jacob 
Stauffer. Present membership, about 200. 

4. General Conference Mennonites — organized 
about 1860 by J. H. Oberholtzer and others. This 
church had its start in eastern Pennsylvania in 1847, 
when Oberholtzer severed his connection with the 
Franconia Conference. He was joined a few years 
later by several Swiss Mennonite congregations in 


64 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Iowa and Illinois, and still later reinforced by several 
thousand Russian Mennonites who came to America 
in the early seventies. The present strength of this 
church is rated at about 136 ministers and 20,000 
members. . 

5. Church of God in Christ, Mennonite—organ- 
ized by John Holdeman in 1859. The present 
strength of this church is rated at 5 bishops, 48 
ministers, 19 deacons, and 2100 members. 

6. Defenceless Mennonites—organized in 1866 
by Henry Egli, an Amish Mennonite minister in 
Indiana. Present statistics give the strength of this 
church as follows: bishops, 7; ministers, 18; deacons, 
19; members, 1040. 

7. Wisler Mennonites—organized in 1871 by 
Jacob Wisler and others, in Indiana, and later rein- 
forced by a number of congregations in Ontario, 
Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Latest statistics avail- 
able assign this church the following strength: 
bishops, 11; ministers, 34; deacons, 22; members, 
1940. 

8. Mennonite Brethren in Christ—organized in 
1883 by Daniel Brenneman, Solomon Eby, William 
Gehman, and others; being a union of “Evangelical 
Mennonites of Eastern Pennsylvania,” who had with- 
drawn from the Oberholtzer faction in 1859, the 
“Reformed Mennonites” in Indiana who had with- 
drawn from the Mennonite Church in 1874, the 
“Evangelical Mennonites” in Canada, and the “Breth- 
ren.in Christ” in Ohio. This church is credited with 
31 bishops, 148 ministers, and 7587 members. 

_ 9. Central Illinois Conference of Mennonites— 
also known as “Stuckey Mennonites,” organized by 


OF INFORMATION 65 


Joseph Stuckey (an Amish Mennonite bishop of Ili- 
nois) and others about forty years ago. This church 
is credited with 23 bishops, 15 ministers, and 28/4 
members. 

10. Amish Mennonites (Conservative)—a branch 
that separated from the main body of Amish Menno- 
nites and organized themselves into a conference in 
1911. They are credited with 15 bishops, 33 minis- 
ters, 16 deacons, and 2794 members. 

11. Russian Mennonites—Among the Russian 
Mennonites who have come to America since 18/70 
there are a number of separate bodies such as the 
“Brueder Gemeinde,” the “Krimmer Brueder Ge- 
meinde,” the “Kleine Gemeinde” “Bergthal’ con- 
gregations, etc. In view of the possibilities in the 
way of Russian Mennonite immigration into America 
in the near future, it is not unlikely that at some 
time the largest element of Mennonite population in 
America may be the descendants from these immi- 
grants from Russia. 

Counting all the different Mennonite bodies 
in America (United States, Canada, and Mexico) 
the total membership now approximates one hundred 
thousand. While we rejoice at the growth in num- 
bers, we can not but share in the generally expressed 
regret that there are so many different bodies of 
Mennonites. Some have left the parent body on 
the ground that the Mennonite Church is too strict 
in its discipline, others on the ground that it is not 
strict enough. And while one would naturally sup- 
pose that the branches inclined toward more ad- 
vanced conservatism would gravitate together and 
seek to unite into one body, and that there would 


66 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


naturally be a general coming together on the part of 
those more inclined toward liberalism, yet this does 
not seem to be the case. On the other hand there 
have been further subdivisions in some of the seced- 
ing bodies already named. But should there ever 
be a turn in the tendency toward disunion, and both 
extreme conservatives and liberalists seek common 
ground, they will find a common meeting place on 
the ground now occupied by the parent body, official- 
ly known as “The Mennonite Church,” which is 
about half-way between the extremes represented 
among Mennonite bodies. Concerning these, as well 
as members of all churches called Christian, we join 
in the prayer of our Lord “that they all may be one,” 
even as the Father and the Son are one. 


GEUAr Pi ich Rae LA 


THE KINGDOM OF PEACE AND THE 
KINGDOM OF FORCE 


Through the three centuries of their existence 
as a religious body, Mennonites have invariably 
held that the Bible teaching forbids that Christians 
engage in carnal warfare. This principle is clearly 
set forth in the sixth commandment, and is strongly 
emphasized and enlarged on in the Sermon on the 
Mount, and other portions of the New Testament. 
Writers of every class and period honestly admit 
that Mennonites have a most unique and unim- 
peachable war record. 

Most Christian bodies recognize in the peace 
doctrine one of the noblest of Christian virtues, and 
that the exercise of universal love and good will 
toward all human beings is man’s highest duty on 
earth. It was originally designed by the Divine 
Mind that this principle should be observed among 
all nations of every kindred, people, and tongue 
under heaven. 

Since love and good will are to be exercised 
by all mankind there are to be recognized two king- 
doms among men: the one a kingdom of this world, 
that rules and overawes by the power of the sword 
and other instruments of death, and the other a 
kingdom whose weapon is the sword of the Spirit 
(the Word of God, which is quick and powerful, and 
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to 
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the 


68 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart), hence the latter 
has no place in the kingdoms of this world. 

The first is divinely appointed to hold in check 
the works of the evil doer and to preserve the life 
and dwelling place of all who temporarily abide in 
the world and are yet subjects of the kingdom of 
peace. 

Members of the peace kingdom are supposed to 
be universally law-abiding and separate in operation, 
and hence as a kingdom of peace can never come 
in conflict with the kingdom of force. Should the 
kingdom of peace accomplish its great work of ex- 
tending over all the earth as the waters cover the 
sea, so that the lawless and evil doing class would 
disappear, then the kingdom of force would become 
obsolete and useless. 

Though the fact is generally recognized that the 
kingdom of peace and the kingdom of force should 
operate separately as two institutions, after all many 
persons insist on exercising certain rights and privi- 
leges that give them identity in both kingdoms. 

In short, citizenship becomes established in 
both kingdoms to the degree that where the fran- 
chise is used, it follows that such citizens should 
use the sword also. In this it becomes clear that 
the true principle of separation between the two 
powers is lost, and unhappily they become inter- 
woven and entangled one with the other. 

Some Protestant leaders, such as Martin Luther 
and others, claimed that nonresistance was taught 
in the Scriptures but yet held it to be necessary and 
obligatory for Christians to go to war with the civil 


OF INFORMATION 69 


powers when called on. Others, such as Zwingli 
and Calvin, believed and practiced the noncombatant 
life when applying to aggressive warfare; but de- 
fensive warfare they claimed to be right. 

Menno Simons held the position and taught his 
followers that carnal warfare, under all conditions 
and circumstances, was wrong, and in direct oppo- 
sition to the teaching of the Bible. He boldly pro- 
claimed that “Our weapons are not swords and 
spears... . true Christians know no vengeance, 
no matter how they are maltreated.” 

Because of the diversity of opinions in many 
of the Protestant creeds, it has long become a diffi- 
cult matter in time of war for the kingdom of force 
to discern the motives of believers who teach and 
practice the doctrine of absolute separation between 
Church and State. 

It was Benjamin Franklin who said that “There 
never was a good war or a bad peace.” Even in 
such light the Church stands entirely out of its 
element, when aiding or abetting war, or in lending 
assistance to the kingdom of force in executing its 
powers in resisting the works of the unrighteous. 

Individuals high up in the affairs of civil life 
often fail utterly to understand the creed that holds 
it to be wrong for the Christian to stand up in de- 
fense of his own country. Because of these con- 
ditions it readily appears as to why its advocates 
are misunderstood, and find themselves classed with 
those who are friendly to the enemy and open trait- 
ors to their native country. In this way many well 
meaning people have become utterly blind to the 
fact that it requires more moral courage and real 


70 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


bravery for its advocates to stand for such a prin- 
ciple than it does to meet an enemy in mortal com- 
bat. | 

To be regarded as “slackers” and “traitors,” and 
in the meantime to be persecuted and punished ac- 
cordingly, carries with it a reproach that in the sight 
of men is one of the severest tests that Christian 
character can be called upon to endure. 

Few if any Protestant denominations have ever 
suffered in Europe or America as have the Menno- 
nites. Three hundred years ago they were ridiculed, 
imprisoned, tortured, and killed by Catholics, and 
in later years received similar treatment from Prot- 
estants. It was the cruel scourge of religious wars 
in Europe that drove Mennonites in large numbers 
from that continent to America. Rather would they 
brave the perils of a voyage across the Atlantic 
Ocean (requiring from eight to twelve weeks) and 
the trials of pioneer life in America than to longer 
abide amid such surroundings. 

Several of the colonies in America, especially 
Pennsylvania, had given out the inducement that 
they would be granted exemption from military duty. 
William Penn’s treaty with the Indians, “that they 
would live in love and peace with him and his chil- 
dren as long as the sun and the moon endure,” in- 
spired the emigrant to Pennsylvania shores to be- 
lieve that wars and rumors of wars would be un- 
known in that country. 

Flistory supplements the statement that as long 
as white men honored and respected this pledge 
made by the Indians, not one drop of Quaker or 
Mennonite blood was shed at their hands. 


I 


ES HN BIBS nid Re OD AN 


OVERTURES OF INDIANS WERE FIRST 
PEACEFUL, THEN REVENGEFUL 


Mennonites as a people have never been known 
to come into aggressive or defensive conflict with 
the Indians. When Mennonites or Quakers were 
known by them, they were readily recognized as 
peace-loving and peace-practicing people who were 
not suspected in the least of betraying a league of 
confidence. One of the first and earliest traits of 
the Indian character was to court the friendship and 
good will of their pale-faced neighbors. It was not 
until the principles of peace were ruthlessly violated 
by white men that the animal spirit in the Indian 
became aroused to acts of fury, desperation, and 


bloodshed. 


The speeches of Logan, chief of the Mingoes, 
and the one given at the time of Black Hawk’s fare- 
well, very lucidly and pointedly illustrate this 
thought. History records instances when the first 
ships of white men touched the shores of the New 
World, when the Indians at once recognized them 
as heaven-sent friends, and hastened to offer them 
the best things they had to eat in the form of cooked 
venison and fish, two of the choicest articles and 
most toothsome of foods to be found in our market 
squares today. The story of their league made with 
William Penn and his people is a tribute to the 


Ups MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Indian character that transcends that of every other 
people in the world. 

Whenever the Indians were able to recognize 
nonresistant and peace-loving people, special care 
was taken to make distinction between them and 
others with whom they were on the war-path. In 
evidence of this we have the acount of friendship 
and deep sympathy shown to the Mennonites in the 
Schoharie Valley of New York in the year 1714, 
also those in Lancaster and other counties in Penn- 
sylvania. All appeared to be perfectly immune to 
Indian attack because of the pledge they had given 
in the treaty with William Penn. 

In Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, while 
war and bloodshed was going on at a terrible rate 
between tribesmen of those states, white settlers, 
many of whom were Mennonites, dwelt together in 
perfect quietude and shared the benefits of a com- 
mon hunting ground. | 

The overtures of the Indian being always of 
friendly bearing, there came a change with the out- 
break of the old French wars with the English 
colonists in 1754, when Indians were made to be- 
lieve that all settlements by whites east of the Ohio 
river were made with the purpose of robbing them 
of their own hunting grounds. } 

These conditions became the cause for unrest on 
the part of the Indians themselves, as well as for 
trouble and anxiety to whites along all border set- 
tlements of the east. Being a child of nature, the 
red man gave evidence of being heart-broken and 
disappointed because of having to give up extensive 
hunting ground areas without any reimbursement. 


OF INFORMATION ras, 


Some tribes did not give up without a struggle. 
Others remained with the whites until the last of 
their tribes had disappeared in death. Concerning 
these there remained to us the mournful and deeply 
pathetic stories of “The Last of the Mohicans,” “The 
Eagle of the Mohawks” and the supremely tragic 
tale (related by Charles Sprague) of “The North 
American Indian.” 

The widespread bitterness that sprang up, and 
the strife and bloodshed that followed, was not con- 
fined to the actual aggressors, but vengeance fell 
upon the innocent as well as upon the league- 
breaker and hunting-ground intruder. 

Under such circumstances the peace-loving Men- 
nonites, many of whom were located along the 
border settlements at this time, became exposed to 
the savage fury of the Indians—and along with that 
they were made to suffer the reproach and _ perse- 
cution of white men of other religious persuasions 
because they refused to assist them in wars of exter- 
mination on the Indian or to drive him away. 

The unparalleled treachery and savage ferocity 
that was continued for years between white men and 
red men forms a chapter in American history that 
is awful and heart-rending to contemplate. The 
Indians continued to claim the country as their own 
hunting grounds. In face of all this, foot by foot 
and mile by mile, the pale-faces continued to en- 
croach upon what they considered their rightful 
possessions, 

For some time the Indians exacted by way of 
compensation the condition that when red men 
called at the home of a white man for something to 


74 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


eat, he was not to be refused. At a later period 
this privilege became abused to the degree that 
Indians began to travel through the settlements 
of white men in bands of twenty or more and the 
privilege of being fed from the white man’s home 
was claimed as usual. Whenever refusal was of- 
fered, it frequently happened that they would take 
possession of the premises for the time, cook their 
own meal, eat it and then proceed to their journey. 
Nonresistant people peaceably allowed this privilege 
to be exacted again and again without resentment, 
but other whites of different temperament resorted 
to violence and bloodshed in defending their homes 
from these invasions. 

Conditions followed in which Mennonites in- 
discriminately suffered with the guilty, and num- 
bers of instances are on record, both in Pennsylvania 
and Virginia, where their homes were burned, and 
members of the family killed or carried into cap- 
tivity. 

A Mennonite colony located on the headwaters 
of the Rappahannock in Fauquier county, Virginia, 
where families by the name of Barr, Baer, Groff 
Webber and others were attacked by Indians in 
1724 and a number of the settlers killed. 

Late in the night of September 19, 1757, the 
house of Jacob Hostetler in Berks county, Pennsyl- 
vania, was surrounded by eight or ten Indians. In 
the building were Jacob Hostetler, his wife, three 
sons, and a daughter. The father would not permit 
his sons to shoot at the Indians, even while they 
were setting fire to the house and barn. After re- 
maining in the cellar as long as they could bear the 


OF INFORMATION 75 


heat, they crawled out by the lower window and at 
once were taken captive. The mother was stabbed 
to death while a son and the daughter were toma- 
hawked and scalped. The others were carried off 
captives. After living for seven years with the 
Indians, they were released and permitted to return 
to their home in Pennsylvania. 

In 1763 the colony of Mennonites located in the 
Shenandoah Valley, in Page county, Virginia (where 
were settled the families of Michael Kauffman, 
Abram Heistand, Peter Blausser, Abram Strickler, 
John Rhodes and others) were all obliged to flee 
from Massanutten on the Shenandoah river to a 
place of safety east of the Blue Ridge mountains on 
account of a general Indian outbreak. In course 
of time these families all returned and reoccupied 
their homes. 

On the last of August in the following year— 
(1764) when the corn and hemp fields were grown to 
full length, eight Indians led by a white man sud- 
denly appeared at the home of John Rhodes, a min- 
ister in the Mennonite Church, and the greater 
number of the family were surprised and massacred 
and their scalps taken. 

Those who were killed were Bro Rhodes, who 
was shot while standing in the doorway of his home, 
his wife and one son, who were killed in the yard. 
Of two sons who were out in the corn field, one 
was shot out of a pear tree (into which he had 
climbed to see what all the noise at the house 
meant), the other was shot and killed in the river 
while attempting to cross to a place of safety. While 
the awful work of taking the lives of her father, 


76 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


mother and brother was going on in the yard, the 
daughter (Elizabeth, aged twelve or filteen years) 
snatched up her baby sister (Anna, about a year and 
a half old) and ran toward the barn, where she was 
followed by an Indian. She ran in at a door and 
secured it, and while the Indian ran back to the 
house to get fire, Elizabeth crept out at an opening 
at the rear of the barn, entered a field of tall hemp, 
and through it ran unobserved to the river, which 
she crossed, all the time carrying her little sister, till 
she reached the home of a neighbor, and thus saved 
her own life and that of her little sister. 

After plundering the premises fire was set to 
all the buildings. The body of Bro. Rhodes being 
left in the door-way where it had fallen, it became 
partly consumed in the flames. The Indians then 
took their flight, taking with them two other sons 
and two daughters as captives. The younger son 
being weakly and unable to travel, he was killed. 
The two daughters refusing to go farther, they were 
also killed in a barbarous manner and scalped. The 
remaining son, whose name was Michael, was taken 
along to the Indian camps west of the Ohio river 
where he was held as a captive for three years. 
While there he saw the Indians sell the scalps of 
his father, mother, and six brothers and sisters to 
the French authorities for about fifteen dollars. 
After Gen. Bouquet’s treaty in 1767, the Indians 
were required to release all white prisoners. Mich- 
ael, along with many others, was permitted to come 
home to assist in the settling up of his father’s 
estate. 

Without question, the massacre was one of the 


OF INFORMATION 77 


most tragic and harrowing circumstances that God 
has ever permitted to befall the Mennonite Church 
in America. 

It was also in the year 1764 that John Hooley 
and family, along with other Mennonite families, 
were compelled to leave their newly established 
homes in the upper Susquehanna Valley to escape 
Indian attack. It was because of these conditions 
that they were led to locate permanently in Lan- 
caster county, Pennsylvania. 

In about the year 1760 the Hartman family in 
Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, was raided by In- 
dians while the mother and a son had gone to mill 
several miles from home. Several Indians entered 
the house where they killed the father and one son, 
and took the two remaining children, a son and a 
daughter named Regina, away with them as cap- 
tives. The son was never heard from again, but 
Regina was taken to the Indian towns somewhere 
in the wilderness of Ohio and held as a captive for 
seven years, in which time she grew to womanhood. 
Before the home was broken up by the awful tragedy 
wrought by the hand of the Indians, Regina used 
to hear her mother sing a number of familiar hymns, 
one of which through her long period of captivity 
she never forgot. 

By the treaty of 1767, she was permitted to come 
back home but when she reached her former neigh- 
borhood she could recognize no one—not even her 
mother who searched diligently among the returned 
prisoners in the effort to find her. It was not until 
the mother began to sing some of the hymns she 
used to sing at the time of Regina’s childhood that 


78 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


the girl, now grown to womanhood, walked up to 
her, saying that she remembered hearing that hymn 
sung before she was taken away by the Indians. 
It was in this most remarkable and providential way 
that mother and daughter were restored to each 
other. 

In about the year 1767 the parents of Magdalene 
Weland settled and established their home at a 
point on the banks of the upper forks of the Susque- 
hanna river one hundred miles north of Lancaster. 
When the family first located here Magdalene was 
then but a young girl. During their stay in this 
locality, the family was twice driven from home 
and their buildings burned. Final escape was made 
by way of the river in a small canoe, but not until 
one of Magdalene’s brothers had been shot dead and 
another wounded by the Indians. Other members of 
the family escaped death by lying flat down in the 
bottom of the canoe, from which the upper edges 
were splintered away and the fragments scattered 
over their bodies by the continued firing of the 
Indians from the shore. 

Magdalene, with the surviving members of the 
family, reached Lancaster county without further 
harm. Here she in time was married to David 
Heatwole and lived for some years on the Nolt place 
near New Holland. In 1795 they located in Rock- 
ingham county, Virginia, where a large family was 
reared. David Heatwole was the first deacon of the 
Mennonite Church in Virginia and Magdalene Wel- 
and Heatwole, his wife, was the great grandmother 
to the writer. 

Other accounts of Indian outbreaks on Menno- 


OF INFORMATION 79 


nite families might be given, but the circumstances 
are meagre in the details and not sufficiently authen- 
tic for record here. In a general way destruction to 
life and property by Indians against Mennonites are’ 
not so frequent, when compared with the numerous 
instances where people of other nationality and re- 
ligious faith suffered greatly. 


CHAPTER XVI 


TRIALS OF MENNONITES DURING THE 
REVOLUTIONARY WAR 


It is known that during the Revolutionary War 
Mennonites were located in considerable bodies in 
the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. 
Membership was confined largely to the class who 
were married and settled in life. Though the cus- 
toms of their home life were in all respects contrary 
to the tactics of military training, single young men 
of Mennonite parentage found it difficult to keep 
out of the army. Early settlers, both old and young 
men, were given much to hunting, and of course 
were habitual gun carriers, and hence they were 
much accustomed to camp-life in the woods. The 
first ranks of the continental armies were made up 
of young men and were later recruited by men more 
advanced in life. 


Among the latter class were those members of 
Menonite faith who claimed exemption from mili- 
tary duty on conscientious grounds and that the 
positive creed of the Church was such that forbids 
carnal warfare. Because of this attitude public feel- 
ing ran high in some localities in Pennsylvania and in 
Virginia, where Mennonites were threatened with 
mob violence. In Virginia, Quakers as well as Men- 
nonites were kept under surveillance and their mo- 
tives ascribed more to cowardice and fear than the 
teaching of Scripture. 


OF INFORMATION 81 


To counteract this unfriendly public feeling, 
Mennonites in Pennsylvania in the year 1775 drew 
up the following short and sincere Declaration :-— 


“TO OUR HONORABLE ASSEMBLY AND ALL OTH- 
ERS IN HIGH OR LOW STATION OF ADMIN- 
ISTRATION, AND TO ALL FRIENDS AND 
INHABITANTS OF THIS COUNTRY, TO 
WHOSE SIGHT THIS MAY COME, BE 
THEY ENGLISH OR GERMANS” 


“In the first place we acknowledge us indebted to the 
most high God, who created Heaven and Earth, the only 
good Being, to thank him for all His great Goodness and 
manifold Mercies and Love through our Savior Jesus 
Christ who is come to save the Souls of Men, having all 
Power in Heaven and on Earth. 

“Further we find ourselves indebted to be thankful to 
our late worthy Assembly, for giving so good Advice in 
these troub'esome Times to all Ranks of People in Pennsyl- 
vania, particularly in. allowing those, who, by the Doctrine 
of our Savior Jesus Christ, are persuaded in their Con- 
sciences to love their Enemies, and not to resist Evil, to 
enjoy the liberty of their Consciences, for which, as also 
all the good things we enjoyed under their care, we heartily 
thank that worthy Body of the Assembly, and all high and 
low in Office who have advised to such a peaceful Measure, 
hoping and confiding that, they, and all others entrusted 
with Power, in this hitherto blessed Province, may be moved 
by the same Spirit of Grace, which animated the first 
Founder of this Province, our late worthy Proprietor 
William Penn, to grant Liberty of Conscience to all its in- 
habitants, that they in the great and memorable Day of 
Judgment may be put on the right Hand of the just Judge 
who judgeth without Respect of Person, and hear of Him 
these blessed words, “Come ye blessed of my Father, in- 
herit the Kingdom prepared for you,” etc. What ye have 
done unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done 
unto me, among which number (i.e. the least of Christ’s 
brethren), We, by His grace hopé to be ranked, and every 


82 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Leinity and favor shown to such tender conscienced, al- 
though weak Followers of this our blessed Savior, will not 
be forgotten by Him in that great day. 

“The Advice to those who do not find Freedom of 
Conscience to take up arms, that they ought to be helpful 
to those who are in Need and distressed Circumstances, we 
receive with cheerfulness to all Men of that Station they 
may be—it being our Principle to feed the Hungry and 
give the Thirsty Drink—we dedicated ourselves to serve all 
Men in every Thing that can be helpful to the Preservation 
of Men’s Lives, but we find no Freedom in giving or doing 
or assisting in any Thing by which Men’s Lives are de- 
stroyed or hurt—We beg the Patience of all those who be- 
lieve we err on this Point. 

“We are always ready according to Christ’s Command 
to Peter, to pay the tribute, that we may offend no Man, 
and we are ready to pay Taxes and to render unto Caesar 
the Things that are Caesar’s, and to God those Things that 
are God’s, although we think ourselves very weak to give 
to God His due Honor, He being a Spirit and Life, and we’ 
only Dust and Ashes. 

“We are also willing to be subject to the Higher Pow- 
ers, and to give in the manner Paul directs us—for he 
beareth the Sword not in vain, for he is the Minister of 
God, a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doeth 
Evil. 

“This testimony we lay down before our worthy Assemb- 
ly and all other Persons in Government, letting them know, 
that we are thankful as above mentioned, and that we are 
not at Liberty in Conscience to take up Arms to conquer 
our Enemies, but rather to pray to God, who has Power 
in Heaven and on Earth, for US and THEM. 


“We also crave the Patience of all the inhabitants of 
this country—that they think to see clearer in the Doctrine 
of the blessed Jesus Christ, we will leave it to them and 
God, finding ourselves very poor; for Faith is to proceed out 
of the Word of God, which is Life and Spirit, and a Power 
of God, and our Conscience is to be instructed by the same, 
therefore we beg for Patience. 


OF INFORMATION 83 


“Our small Gift which we have given, we gave to the 
those who have the Power over us, that we may not offend 
them, as Christ taught us by the Tribute Penny. We 
heartily pray that God would govern all Hearts of our 
Rulers, be they high or low, to meditate those good Things 
which will pertain to OUR and THEIR Happiness.” 

“The above Declaration written by Benjamin Hershey, 
minister of the Menninist Church, and signed by a number 
of Elders and Teachers of the Society of Mennonists and 
some of the German Baptists, presented to the Honorable 
House of Assembly, on the 7th day of November, was most 
graciously received.” 


Though the action of government authorities 
counseled the people against mob violence, so un- 
popular became the Mennonites in different sections 
of the country that numbers of them moved to the 
wilderness sections of Canada with their families, 
rather than to longer bear the taunts and jibes of 
unfriendly and hostile neighbors. 

On page 143 of W. L. Grant’s High School 
History of Canada, appears the statement that even 
after the close of the Revolutionary War and after 
peace had been declared between the British and 
the Americans, “An orgy of cruelty broke out in 
which men and women were imprisoned, whipped, 
tarred and feathered.” As a consequence, more than 
28,000 residents of the United States sought refuge 
in different parts of Canada. As many as 5,000 
took up land in the fertile Niagara peninsula and 
other sections farther west in what is now Ontario. 
Among the latter were numbers of Mennonites who 
left comfortable homes in Pennsylvania and set their 
faces to the wilderness to go through the experiences 
of pioneer life over again. Though the change meant 
destitution, privation, and suffering, they longed 


84 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


for the security and protection of the English gov- 
ernment. 

Out of this general exodus of Mennonites from 
the parent folds in the United States have in time 
erown and many different and (in a number of 
cases) large congregations now comprising the On- 
tario Conference, one of the important bodies among 
Mennonites in America. 

The peace-loving Mennonites were in most cases 
misunderstood and were classed in common with 
the Tories and loyalists of that period. The property 
of hundreds was confiscated and the proceeds re- 
verted to the government, that was just at that time 
‘n dire need for funds. In the meantime the British 
government made strong inducement to this unfor- 
tunate class of people to locate within the borders 
of Canada. Two hundred acres of land were given 
to each family and provisions were made to give as 
much more to each son when he became of age, 
and as much to each daughter when married. 

Provisions, seeds, and tools were also provided. 
In Ontario alone it is said that nearly 3,000,000 
acres of land was so turned over to new settlers. 
With such inducements there were many Mennonite 
families from Pennsylvania and elsewhere who leit 
the bounds of the United States to begin home- 
making anew in the rich timberlands of Upper 
Canada. 


CHAPTER XVII 


THE WAR OF 1812 AND THE MEXICAN WAR 


The United States army during these wars being 
made up of volunteers, people of nonresistant faith 
had no occasion to be disturbed. The old army 
records of those periods indicate, however, that per- 
sons of Mennonite parentage in Pennsylvania and 
Virginia were enlisted in the ranks and saw service 
in both these wars. As a rule these were young men 
not at the time holding membership with the Church. 


For generations before and after the Mexican 
War the United States government established a 
general law requiring every able-bodied citizen to 
take no less than four days of military training every 
year. By paying a fine of fifty cents a day for each 
absence from these training-days, which were known 
as muster drills, Mennonites avoided doing violence 
to conscience. 

The two war periods referred to became very 
unpopular with many people of the United States 
because the armies were marched out of their native 
country to places far from their homes. Thousands 
sickened and died during camp life and in certain 
instances whole battallions and regiments refused in 
a body to cross the borders of their country either 
into Canada or Mexico. 

During these wars Mennonites became largely 
engaged in the production of foodstuffs, and owing to 
the advance in prices many of them became wealthy 


86 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


and were able to lay up much goods for themselves 
and their children. It was the first era of prosperity 
and sumptuous living for Mennonites in America. 


GAP Eee Vie 
MENNONITES DURING THE CIVIL WAR 


The military laws during the Civil War were 
very exacting, requiring that all men capable of 
service should enter the ranks at ages ranging from 
eighteen to forty-five years. Because of the extrem- 
ity for man-power in the Southern Confederacy be- 
ing reached at an early period of the War, the age 
limit was changed to seventeen to sixty years. 
In the North the laws were less stringent, as the 
man-power was greater, and it was not until toward 
the latter part of the war that draft laws were en- 
forced. 


The exemption laws were of benefit to few, and 
court-martial and heavy fines awaited all who failed 
to respond to the general call for troops. In the 
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where Mennonites 
of the Southern States were chiefly located, many 
of the men of this faith were drafted and forcibly 
taken into the army. 


Some of these went from their homes leaving 
the solemn pledge with loved ones that they would 
not strike a blow, or fire a gun at the enemy. In 
time the purpose and conviction of these brethren 
became known, and they were reported to officers 
higher up. They were threatened with court-martial 
and the death sentence, but no change followed in 
their attitude toward the enemy. Finally they were 
released from bearing arms, and were assigned to 


88 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


other lines of service, such as cooking meals and 
the driving of teams. 

After serving in these different capacities through 
the campaign of 1861—62, most of these brethren 
found their way back to their homes, where some 
time was spent keeping hidden away from the ob- 
servation of army officials. Finding this experience 
very unsafe, they passed through the border lines 
as refugees to the western and northern states, to 
remain until after the close of the war between the 
states. On one of these perilous journeys, a com- 
pany of about seventy refugees was captured by a 
small body of southern troops and were taken as 
prisoners of war to the famous Libby Prison at 
Richmond, Va., where after being held for nearly 
two months they were liberated by action of the 
Confederate government on conditions that each 
became responsible for the payment of five hundred 
dollars into the Confederate treasury. Most of the 
prisoners being Mennonites, the Church at home 
provided the money and the brethren were permitted 
to return to their homes where they received a most 
joyful reception. 

The great property loss sustained by Mennonites 
was during the raids made by the Confederate armies 
into the Cumberland Valley, into Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, and by the Federal armies into the 
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and elsewhere. 

In all these sections the destructive effects of 
war became manifest in robbery, burnings, the 
slaughtering and driving away of live stock of all 
kinds, the plundering of homes with the abuse and 
humiliation of the inmates by an unrestrained sol- 


OF INFORMATION 89 


diery—which bespoke the awful verdict that war is 
relentless and cruel wherever its effects are felt, 
and that the path of strife and bloodshed ever leads 
to destruction and death. 

Unlike the wars of 1812 and with Mexico, in- 
stead of Mennonites becoming rich and independent 
because of great profits made in the sale of food 
products, they, as a people, in the portions of Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland and Virginia were thrown back- 
ward financially no less than fifty years on account 
of the devastating consequences of the Civil War. 


THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 


A conflict of arms broke out early in the year 
1908 between the United States and Spain and was 
concluded with the magnanimous terms of peace 
in which a conquering country paid the conquered 
country the sum of $20,000,000 as one of the terms 
of the treaty. 

President McKinley called for 125,000 volun- 
teers. This quota of men was supplied without the 
enrollment of one known Mennonite, though num- 
bers having Mennonite parentage are known to have 
enlisted, and some who lost their lives, were of 
Mennonite blood. 

A war where only volunteers enlist affords an 
excellent opportunity for people of nonresistant faith 
to show where their place is in time of war. It is 
only when the draft laws are enforced that it often 
happens that the real position of Mennonites is not 
understood by the authorities in charge of the war 
machine, and that bonds, fines, and imprisonments 
become their lot. 


Clevedon Msg OG. 


TESTING TIMES DURING THE GREAT 
WORLD WAR 


When great armies are made up by selective 
draft regulations, it is apt to develop a hard situation 
for people of noncombatant faith. It is mentioned 
that in Germany Mennonites were shot for refusing 
to go into the army. In Canada, as well as in the 
United States, the widespread sentiment prevailed 
that Mennonites were dodgers, slackers, and friends 
to the enemy. Many others, out of no religious 
motives whatever, were styled “pacifists” and “con- 
scientious objectors.” Officers and soldiers in the 
ranks looked reproachfully upon all these different 
classes as a common herd. 


Even in places outside of army circles, public 
feeling became wrought up to such degree that mob 
raids were made on certain settlements where 
Mennonites were located. 


It is to be admitted that public officials under 
such circumstances found it difficult to always dis- 
cern the line of demarkation between one whose 
religious creed forbids him to engage in carnal war- 
fare and one whose creed does not declare against 
its members going to war. Because of the greatly 
aroused public sentiment Mennonites had to be 
drafted and were held in camps throughout the 
period that the United States was engaged in the 
conflict. 


OF INFORMATION 91 


During the heaviest drafting of the War, the 
latter part of 1918, young members of the Church, 
in considerable numbers, were taken into the various 
training camps scattered over the country. 

Through the efforts of Bro. Aaron Loucks and 
other brethren who were appointed by the General 
Conference, our boys in camp fared much _ better 
than they otherwise might have done. The failure 
of the under officers in the training camps to get the 
proper interpretation of orders issued from the War 
Department at Washington as to the treatment of 
noncombatants from a church whose creed forbids 
its members to engage in war in any form was re- 
sponsible for much of the sufferings of noncombat- 
ants in camp. The visits of Bro. Loucks and his co- 
workers seldom failed to rectify these errors. The 
fears of parents concerning the welfare of their sons 
in camp were greatly alleviated by these visits which 
also brought relief to those in camp, and often an 
understanding was reached whereby the officers in 
camp were able to co-operate more sympathetically 
with the War Department in the regulations gov- 
erning the treatment of religious objectors. 

While in camp, officers were directed by the 
War Department to keep noncombatants in separate 
barracks, where they were not required to wear the 
uniform, or against their conscience do that which 
led them to aid or abet war. In maintaining these 
principles they were frequently brought under severe 
test, and as far as possible were made to appear 
very small and despicable in the eyes of the regular 
soldier. Persistent efforts were made from time to 
time to induce brethren to render service that gave 


92 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


direct aid to the war machine. In some cases where 
this service was refused brethren were charged and 
brought for trial before military courts, where sen- 
tence was passed on them for a term of years in 
army prisons. 


A Historical Meeting 


Probably one of the most important meetings 
ever held by Mennonites in America was the meet- 
ing of the Mennonite General Conference held at 
Yellow Creek Mennonite Church, Elkhart county, 
Indiana, Aug. 29,30, 1917, about five months aiter 
the United States had entered the War on the side 
of the allies. Because of the momentous problems 
facing nonresistant churches at this time it was felt 
that we could not make our position too clearly 
known among all people, that all might know the 
reasons for our attitude, Accordingly two papers 
were drawn up and adopted. The first, “Mennonites 
on Military Service,’ (which, because of its im- 
portance, we herewith print entire) is a discussion 
of the scriptural reasons for espousing the nonre- 
sistant faith, The second was in the form of an 
appeal to the President of the United States and 
the Premier of Canada asking for exemption from 
military service. A committee of three was ap- 
pointed to carry this appeal to Washington and lay 
both papers before President Wilson and Secretary 
of War Baker, and a similar committee of Canadians 
was appointed to apprise the authorities at Ottawa 
of our position on the war question. In both capi- 
tals the committees received respectful hearing. 


OF INFORMATION 93 
MENNONITES ON MILITARY SERVICE 


A Statement of Our Position on Military Service as 
Adopted by The Mennonite General Conference, 
August 29, 1917 


5 


a 


Inasmuch as present war conditions call for an official 
utterance from our Church, we, the bishops, ministers, dea- 
cons and delegates of the Mennonite Church in General 
Conference assembled at the Yellow Creek Church, near 
Goshen, Indiana, Aug. 29, 1917, representing sixteen con- 
ferences in the United States, Canada, and India, desire to 
present the following as an expression on the doctrine of 
nonresistance as applied to present conditions brought on 
by the world war now raging. 


Our Position Defined 


As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of 
Peace, we interpret His command, “Resist not evil,” by His 
other teachings on this subject; viz., “Love your enemies;” 
“Do good to them that hate you;” “Pray for them which 
despitefully use you and persecute you;” “My kingdom is 
not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then 
would my servants fight;” “All they that take the sword 
shall perish with the sword.” The Bible also teaches us 
not to avenge ourselves (Rom. 12:17-21), that “the weapons of 
our warfare are not carnal’ (II Cor. 10:4), and that “the 
servant of the Lord must not strive’ (II Tim. 2:24). Be- 
lieving that the children of God should imbibe and practice 
these teachings, we hold that Christian people should have 
no part in carnal warfare of any kind or for any cause. 
Our attitude on the question of military service is correctly 
stated in that clause of the Selective Draft Law enacted 
May 18, 1917, which provides for exemption for members 
of every church “whose existing creed or principles forbid 
its members to participate in war in any form and whose 
religious convictions are against war or participation there- 
in.’ We deeply regret, however, that this exemption is 
practically nullified (save in the matter of bearing arms) in 


94 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


the further provision empowering the government to impress 
nonresistant people into non-combatant service. 

In our Confession of Faith, adopted at Dortrecht, Hol- 
land, in 1632, the position of our church is defined as follows: 


“Regarding revenge, whereby we resist our ene- 
mies by the sword, we believe and confess, that the 
Lord Jesus has forbidden His disciples and followers 
all revenge and resistance, and has thereby com- 
manded them not to ‘return evil for evil, nor railing 
for railing’; but to ‘put up the sword into the sheath,’ 
or, as the prophets foretold, ‘beat them into plow- 
shares” 9) Matt. 5:39, 44.) Rom. 12714e0e1 Peto. 
Micah 4:3, 

“From this we see, that, according to the ex- 
ample, life, and doctrine of Christ, we are not to do 
wrong, or cause offense or vexation to any one; but 
to seek the welfare and salvation of all men; also, 
if necessity should require it, to flee, for the Lord’s 
sake, from one city to another, and suffer the ‘spoil- 
ing of our goods,’ rather than give offense to any 
one: and if we are struck on our ‘right cheek, 
rather to turn the other also’ than to revenge our- 
selves or return the blow. Matt. 5:39, 10:23; Rom. 
12219) 

“And that we are, besides this, also to pray for 
our enemies, comfort and feed them, when they are 
hungry and thirsty, and thus by well doing convince 
them and overcome the evil with good. Rom. 
12520721; 

“Finally, that we are to do good in all respects, 
‘commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in 
the sight of God,’ and according to the law of Christ, 
do nothing to others that we would not wish them 
to do wrto us—II Cor. 4:2; Matt. 7:12; Luke 
6:31.”—Article 14, Page 25. 


This position has been uniformly held by our fore- 
fathers from Reformation times and their loyalty and de- 
votion to their faith is attested to by their suffering, even 
to the extent of martyrdom and banishment by those gov- 
ernments enjoining military service upon their citizens, and 
for which cause they gratefully accepted the hospitality and 
the guarantee of religious liberty of this land, historical 
records bearing ample witness to these facts. 

In relation to governments we believe that every child 
of God, besides being a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom 


OF INFORMATION 95 


(John 18:36; Phil. 3:20), should also be in subjection to 
civil governmentss(Rom»s (13:1-5; Pit} v3s130-I Pets 2713-17); 
Even laws which may seem unwise and unjust should be 
submitted to uncomplainingly and no thought should be 
entertained of doing anything but comply with all that they 
ask of us—unless they prescribe conditions contrary to the 
Gospel; in which case we should meekly but faithfully stand 
true to the principles of the Gospel, even if the consequences 
entail suffering. This position has been exemplified by 
the apostles (Acts 5:29) and our early church fathers. 


Past Favors Acknowledged 

It is with grateful hearts that we recount the favors 
and considerations accorded our people in the past. In the 
days of William Penn our fathers accepted his invitation to 
immigrate to this land where they might enjoy the freedom 
of conscience in religion and exemption from military service. 
These benefits were later confirmed to them by the Consti- 
tution of the United States and by State Constitutions. 
We rejoice that freedom of conscience is thus recognized 
by the laws of our land. We appreciate the exemption ac- 
corded our brethren, both in the North and in the South, 
during the Civil War, when once their position with refer- 
ence to war became fully known. We still have among us 
brethren who suffered for conscience’s sake during that 
period, but recall with much gratitude the freedom from 
military service which that exemption secured for them. 

We are grateful for the exemption clause for non- 
resistant people in the new Selective Draft Law, and hereby 
express the hope that when the powers that be fully under- 
stand our position with reference to military service, this 
clause referring to non-combatant service may be accord- 
ingly modified. 

Our Standard 

We acknowledge with deep humiliation that not all of 
our people have lived in full conformity with the Gospel 
standard or consistent with our profession of a holy life. 
Some, contrary to the teachings of the Church, have been 
entangled in politics, in commercialism, in pleasure-seeking, 
and in other forms of worldliness; but it should be borne 


96 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


in mind that such conduct has been without regard to the 
express wish and teaching of the Church. The Mennonite 
Church having continually stood for the surrendered life, a 
consistent separation from the world, and an attitude of 
peace toward all men, we call upon our people to bear in 
mind our obligations (Eph. 4:1) that in all places: they may 
be known by the Scriptural designation—‘‘A peculiar people, 
zealous of good works.” 


The Present Issue 

Recognizing with gratefulness the consideration given 
our religious convictions, as previously stated, we take this 
opportunity of giving expression of our attitude concerning 
the issue as it now confronts us. As a Christian people we 
have always endeavored to support the government under 
which we lived in every capacity consistent with the teach- 
ing of the Gospel as we understand it, and will continue to 
do so; but according to this teaching we cannot participate 
in war in any form; that is, to aid or abet war, whether in 
a combatant or non-combatant capacity. We are conscious 
of what this attitude, under existing circumstances, may 
mean. No one who really understands our position will 
accuse us of either disloyalty or cowardice; for our record 
has proved our submissiveness to the powers that be, and to 
maintain our position under present conditions requires 
greater courage than to accept non-combatant service. But 
believing as we do, that any form of service under the mili- 
tary arm of the government means responsibility, either 
directly or indirectly, for the taking of human life and other 
destructive acts of war, we cannot consistently do otherwise 
than hold aloof from every form of military service. Our 
people have at all times refrained from voluntary enlistment 
for service in any form under previous military laws, and 
for us now to accept service under the military arm of the 
government, would be equivalent to a denial of the faith and 
principles which we have held as vital to our spiritual well- 
being and eternal salvation. 

We appeal to the President of the United States and all 
others in authority to bear with us in this attitude and not 
to construe our position as a lack of appreciation for past 


OF INFORMATION. 97 


favors or as an act of disloyalty; also to grant unto us full 
liberty of conscience and the free exercise of our faith. 


Recommendations 

1. To the Brotherhood.—We recommend that in hu- 
mility we seek at the throne of grace the blessing which 
others have sought to secure through the power of the 
sword. That we continue our prayers in behalf of the rulers 
of our land and all others in authority, continue to pray for 
the peace of nations; that we maintain a calmness of mind 
and heart that naturally accompanies a trust in God; that 
we refrain from uncharitable criticism in any form, and 
avoid heated controversy with those who do not agree with 
us on points of doctrine, missing no opportunity of comply- 
ing with the Scriptural injunction of returning good for evil. 

2. To Our Brethren Liable for Military Service.—We 
recommend that they comply with every requirement of the 
government, availing themselves of every opportunity to 
present their claims for exemption, exercising care that they 
do not commit any acts that could be rightfully interpreted 
as desertion or treason—and at the time when they receive 
the summons to enter the military service, they present 
themselves to the authorities and meekly inform them that 
under no circumstances can they consent to service, either 
combatant or non-combatant, under the military arm of 
the government, citing them to the fact that they are mem- 
bers of a church whose creed and principles forbid them to 
have part in war in any form, and that their consciences 
coincide with this position; submitting to any penalty the 
government may see fit to inflict, trusting the Lord for 
guidance and protection. 

3. To Our Conferences and Congregations.—We recom- 
mend that they make every provision for the wellbeing of 
our brethren who may be called upon to suffer on account 
of their faith as a result of this trying situation. While we 
expect an attitude of submission and loyalty on the part of 
our members, we should not deal harshly, but charitably 
and with consideration, with our brethren who may be put 
to the test these days of trial. 

With a fervent prayer to Almighty God that He may 


08 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


bless and so direct the rulers of our land that we may lead 
a quiet and peaceable life, in the full exercise of our re- 
ligious convictions; that we, as His children, may be faithful 
to and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
saints; that God in His wise providence may overrule all to 
the glory of His name and the strengthening of His cause 
among men, we humbly subscribe our names to these dec- 
larations and pledge our powers in devotion to the principles 
herein set forth. 

This statement was signed by 54 bishops, 110 
ministers, and 35 deacons. 

Preparations were also made for looking after 
the interests of the young brethren who had been 
drafted into the army but who could not conscien- 
tiously have any part in military service. ‘These 
young brethren, as a rule were kept in detention 
camps, and before the War was ended several 
hundred nonresistants (many of them Mennonites) 
had been sent to military prisons because their con- 
science forbade them to have any part in noncom- 
batant military service. These were visited regularly 
by the brethren who had been appointed for such 
work. Among those active in this work were Aaron 
Isegucks4D) oD: Miller, S))acSs Hartzlemy Pele cere 
A. G. Clemmer, J. C. Habecker, I. B. Good, D. H. 
3ender and others. 

In the light of all other events in the history 
of this country, there had never before been a con- 
flict of arms in America that more generally affected 
the Mennonites, or brought to them more widely 
extended disturbance than at the time of the great 
World’s War. 

There were cases also where officials of the 
Mennonite Church were arrested, arraigned in Unit- 


OF INFORMATION 99 


ed States courts, and heavily fined for alleged vio- 
lations of the Espionage law, passed during the War 
for the purpose of restraining enemies of the country 
for working against the policy of the government 
during the War. Among these we may name the 
case of S. H. Miller of Shanesville, Ohio, arraigned 
before a U. S. court in Cleveland, Ohio, and the 
writer in company with Rhine W. Benner, who 
were fined before a court in Martinsburg, West 
Virginia.* 

At a later period in the war many of our breth- 
ren who had long been held in camp, were allowed 
to go out into farming sections of the country to 
assist in the gathering and the storing of crops, but 
a careful regulation was adopted so that in no case 
were they allowed to go to their own homes or neigh- 
borhoods. In some cases where the brethren arrived 
at the places assigned, threatenings to lynch them 
became at times loud and frequent. 

After the armistice was signed all our brethren 
were called back to camp, where they appeared to 
have been among the first to get their discharges. 
Though the hardest tests appear to have come upon 
the brethren who were called into camp, and still 
more so while confined in army prisons, yet many 
of them were also severely tried at their homes. 
Solicitation to invest in liberty bonds and War 
savings stamps was made in strong terms to our 
people. Where they refused to contribute to the 


* For an extended description of the experiences of Menno- 
nites during these trying times, read “Mennonites in 
the World War,” by J. S. Hartzler, published by Menno- 
nite Publishing House, Scottdale, Pennsylvania. 


100 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


different war funds, threats were made and some 
put into execution,—such as tar and feathering, 
painting houses and barns in yellow, and decorating 
autos and buildings with flags. 

The War closed in November, 1918. It left 
millions of people in war-stricken countries homeless, 
helpless, penniless, hopeless, dying by thousands 
from famine and pestilence. While not willing to 
help prosecute the War, Mennonites were not slow 
to contribute their mite toward the relief of suffer- 
ing humanity. Accordingly there was organized in 
Dec. 1917 a relief commission known as “Mennonite 
Relief Commission for War-sufferers.” Volunteers 
were sent to France, to the Near East, and later 
to Russia. There have been few changes made in 
this organization, the present Executive Committee 
consisting of Aaron Loucks, D. D. Miller, Eli Reist, 
Levi Mumaw, and E. L. Frey. In common with 
other Mennonite relief organizations, a Mennonite 
Central Committee was organized to look after the 
poor in Russia and, in co-operation with the Menno- 
nite Colonization Committee, to help such Russian 
Mennonites as desire it, to come to America. 

As an evidence of their sincerity, Mennonites, 
since the armistice was signed, have volunteered to 
serve with the reconstruction forces without pay; 
besides these people as a body have within the six 
years since the war is over, contributed over a mil- 
lion dollars for the support of the hungry and desti- 
tute in war-torn lands. Of the many thousands who 
clamored for entrance into the field of strife, there 
are a large percent who aver that never again could 
they be induced to go into the ranks of the army 


OF INFORMATION 101 


because the solemn conviction has come to them that 
war is un-Christian, destructive and murderous. It 
is estimated that where the noncombatant life was 
advocated in this country by thousands, before the 
war, the same principle is now being espoused and 
fostered by millions, since the war. 

Two years after the meeting of the Mennonite 
General Conference at Yellow Creek, at which time 
steps were taken looking after the interests of young 
brethren during the War, this same body met in 
regular session at Harrisonburg, Virginia, August 
27-29, 1919. At this meeting the following paper 
was drawn up and adopted: 


OUR POSITION ON PEACE 


An Expression of Gratitude 


We, the Mennonites of United States, Canada, and 
India, in General Conference assembled near Harrisonburg, 
Va., August 27-29, 1919, express our gratitude to our 
Heavenly Father “who maketh wars to cease unto the ends 
of the earth,” that peace has again returned to the warring 
nations with which we are identified, and that during the 
trying times of the past few years since we last met in 
session near Goshen, Ind., August 29, 30, 1917, He has kept 
us in His loving care and given us grace to preserve our 
testimony of peace to the world. 

We further wish to express our sincere gratitude to 
those in authority who paused in the midst of pressing cares 
and duties to give ear to our appeals and by recognizing 
our petitions made it possible for us to engage in pursuits 
consistent with our faith. 


A Statement of the Doctrine of Peace 


As followers of Christ we believe His Gospel to be a 
Gospel of peace. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give 
unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you” (John 
1427). “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them 


102 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for 
them that despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye 
may be the children of your Father which is in heaven” 
(Matt. 5:44,45). “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, 
live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not 
yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is writ- 
ten, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. There- 
fore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him 
drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his 
head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with 
good” (Rom. 12:18-21). And now that the nations have 
returned to the pursuits of peace we believe that our brethren 
should continue to apply the principles of peace and nonre- 
sistance to all their activities; in business, by seeking not 
their own but every man another’s welfare; in dealing with 
those at variance with us, by rendering good for evil under 
all conditions; in the reconstruction of devastated lands and 
their rehabilitation and any constructive or relief measure 
helpful to man, by rendering assistance in men and money; 
in every walk of life manifesting the spirit of love and good 
will toward all men. 

The experience of the past few years has brought about 
a change in the minds of many with reference to maintain- 
ing a large army and making military training compulsory 
and universal, This, according to our faith, would require 
of us service which, we believe, would involve the violation 
of a principle of the Gospel of Christ whose teachings we 
regard as our rule of life and conduct. 

We are conscious of the consideration our government 
has given to those men who on account of their religious 
convictions and faith could not serve in the military estab- 
lishment, and now in the event that military training and 
service become universal and compulsory, we humbly plead 
that such provisions be made in the law that we may be 
exempted from military training and service. 


Recommendations of the Peace Committee to the 
General Conference 
We recommend that this General Conference appoint a 
standing committee of five brethren whose duty it shall be 


OF INFORMATION 103 


to study any legislation of the nation, or its several states, 
that may come up for consideration which affects our faith 
who, in co-operation with the Executive Committee of the 
General Conference, shall take such steps as they deem 
necessary to give such information to the Church as may 
tend to preserve the unity of the faith, and to bring our 
position before any officials or representatives of Government 
for their consideration that we may continue to enjoy re- 
ligious liberty as provided by the constitution of the United 
States. 


Whereas this body, the Mennonite General Conference, 
has declared its position on peace and the proposed universal 
compulsory military training, and, 

Whereas such statement may be of interest to the chief 
officials of our land, be it, 

Resolved, That a copy of said statement, “Our position 
on Peace,’ as passed by the said Mennonite General Con- 
ference in session near Harrisonburg, Va., August 27-29, 
1919, be sent to the Honorable Woodrow Wilson, President 
of the United States and such other officials as may be 
deemed advisable. 


CHAPTER XX 


HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF MENNONITE 
LITERATURE 


The first printing press known to be established 
in a Mennonite community was set up by Chris- 
topher Sauer at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1738, 
and it was here that the first quarto edition of the 
German Bible was printed. 

This printshop is said to have been patronized 
in a general way by Mennonites, but it is shown 
that their patronage along this line turned in part in 
the direction of the Pietist community at Ephrata 
in Lancaster county. 

Heinrich Funck had his work entitled, “Ein 
Spiegel der Taufe, Mit Geist, Mit Wasser, und Mit 
Blut,” issued from Sauer press. Sauer also published 
a reprint of Christopher Dock’s “Schuleordnung,” 
but the original issue of this work is thought to have 
come from the Ephrata printshop as early as 1744. 
Copies of this work may still be found in some of 
the large public libraries of the United States, as 
it is prized very highly by the antiquarian as the 
first book ever printed in America on the subject 
of school discipline. 

Aside from the Bible, “Der Blutige Schauplatz 
oder Martyrer Spiegel” is perhaps the largest and 
most extensive literary work ever .produced by 
Mennonites. It was in 1748 that the great work 
was undertaken and completed at Ephrata under 


OF INFORMATION 105 


the supervision and direction of two prominent 
Mennonites, Heinrich Funck and Dielman Kolb. 
The paper for this great book was manufactured at 
the same place, six men being engaged on the paper 
mill, while nine others labored in the translation 
from the Dutch, in type-setting, proof-reading and 
binding. 

Copies of this edition are said to be rare, being 
found only in public and private libraries where 
German books are kept. The writer has a complete 
copy, of which the binding, metal corner clips, and 
side clasps are all intact. It contains over twelve 
hundred pages, and bears on the title page the 
imprint of— 

EPHRATA IN PENNSYLVANIA.—DRUCKS UND 


VERLAGS DER BRUDERSCHAFFT. 
ANNO — MDCCXLVIII 


A. The Production of German Books* 


At a very early period there was printed at 
Ephrata an excellent book designed for young read- 
ers that bears the significant title of “Goldene Aepfel 


* Where not defined in the text the following translation is 
given for the benefit of readers who are not familiar with 
the meaning given in German titles here used. 


“Goldene Aepfel in Silbernen Schalen.” 
“Golden Apples in Pictures of Silver.” 
“Gebete auf alle Stunden des Tages.” 
“Prayers for Every Hour in the Day.” 
“Der Kleine Kempis oder Kurze Sprtiche.” 
“The Smaller Kempis or Short Verses.” 
“Der Psalter des Konigs David.” 
“The Psalms of King David.” 
“Das Kleine Davidische Psalterspiel.” 
“David’s Smaller Psalmody.” 


106 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


in Silbernen Schalen.” As evidence that this work 
had general circulation among German people in 
America, appears in this that when the estate of 
Martin Kauffman (who died in 1749) was probated 
in the court of Augusta county Virginia, among 
other books of his library were ten copies of “Golden 
Apples in Silver Shells.” Apparently this book, in 
pattern and form, was similar to that lately published 
by J. B. Smith under title of “One Thousand Best 
Bible Verses.” 


When the estate of “Felty Showalter,” who died 
during the pioneer days, was offered for sale at 
public auction, near what is now Broadway, Vir- 
ginia, there was a book sold bearing the title, 
“Predigt Buch’ (A Sermon Book), auctioned off at 
a price that equaled about half of that brought by a 
horse or a cow that was sold at the same sale. 


It may not be generally known that “Die 
Wandelnde Seele,’ (The Wandering Soul) is the 


“Oekonomie oder Haushaltungskunst.” 
“Economy or Skill in Household Affairs.” 
“Handbitchlein durch Dietrich Philip.” 
“Handbook by Dietrich Philip.” 
“Choral Gesangbuch.” 
“Hymn Book.” 
“Gesangbuch.” “The Hymn Book.” 
“Katechismus zum Gebrauch in Schulen.” 
“A Catechism for Use in Schools.” 
“Die ganze Heilige Schrift.” 
“The Complete Holy Scriptures.” 
“Kurzgefaszte Kirchengeschichte und Glaubenslehre.” 
“The Small Church History and Presentation of 
Doctrine.” 
“Die Gemeinschaftliche Liedersammlung.” 
“Collection of Hymns.” 
“Die Kleine Geistliche Harfe der Kinder Zions.” 
“Spiritual Harp for Zion’s Children.” 


OF INFORMATION 107 


product of a Mennonite author. This work ap- 
peared among German American readers about the 
year 1745. Other German books known to form a 
part of many Mennonite libraries in Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and Virginia are arranged in the follow- 
ing chronological order.— 

“Gebete auf alle Stunden des Tages,” arranged 
in 1789, by Johann Haberman. 

“Der Kleine Kempis, oder Kurze Spruche,” 
published by Peter Leibert at Germantown, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1795. 

“Der Psalter des Koenigs David,” printed at 
Baltimore, Maryland, in 1796 by Samuel Sauer. 


“Der Kleine Davidische Psalterspiel,”’ published 
by Samuel Sauer at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1797. 


“Oekonomie, Oder Haushaltungskunst,” issued 
from the publishers Johnson & Waner, No. 147 
Market St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 


“Handbuechlein durch Dietrich Philip,’ pub- 
lished by Joseph Ehrenfried, at Lancaster, Pennsyl- 
yania. inal8t1: 


“Christliches Gemiits-Gesprach fiir die Jugend.” 
“A Spiritual Conversation on Saving Faith.” 
“Der Evangelische Botschafter.” 
“The Evangelical Ambassador.” 
“Eine Verhandlung von der Aeusserlichen Wassertauf 
und Erklarung des Irrtums.” 
“A Treatise on Water Baptism and What has been 
Erroneously Declared as Water Baptism.” 
“Herold der Wahrheit.” “Herald of Truth.” 
“Der Jugendfreund.” “The Youth’s Friend.” 
“Der Waffenlose Wachter.” “The Weaponless Watch- 


man.” 
“Der Familien Kalender.” “The Family Almanac.” 
“Die Mennonitische Rundschau.” “The Mennonite Re- 


view.” 


108 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


“Choral Gesangbuch,” issued by Joseph Funk 
in 1816, who is recognized as the father of sacred 
song in Virginia. Printed at the office of Laurenz 
Wartman at Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

“Gesangbuch,” published it lecia at» Canton, 
Ohio, by Schaeffer & Sala. 

“Katechismus zum Gebrauch in Schulen,” first 
published in Europe, in 1797, and reissued at Water- 
loo, Ontario, in 1823. 

“Die Ganze Heilige Schrift,” printed by Kimber 
and Scharpless, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 
1830. 

“Kurtzgefaszte Kirchen-Geschichte und Glau- 
benslehre,” by Benjamin Eby in 1841, printed at 
Berlin (now Kitchener) Ontario. | 

“Die Gemeinschaftliche Liedersamnlung,” by 
Heinrich Eby, at Berlin (now Kitchener) Ontario. 

“Die Kleine Geistliche Harfe der Kinder Zions,” 
printed at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, by Young & 
Loeb in 1848. 

“Christliches Gemiiths Gesprach fir die Ju- 
gend,” by Christian Burkholder, printed in 1839 at 
Berlin (now Kitchener) Ontario. 

“Der Evangelische Botschafter,” edited by Hen- 
ry Bartolet of Skippach, Pennsylvania, in 1836. 

“Eine Verhandlung von der Aeusserlichen Was- 
sertauf und Erklarung der Irrthimer,” by Peter 
Burkholder, printed at the office of Laurenz Wart- 
man, Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 1818. 

“Herold der Warheit,” published originally at 
Chicago, Illinois, by John F. Funk & Brother, and 
later moved to Elkhart, Indiana. Also “Der Jugend- 
freund,” by the same firm. 


OF INFORMATION 109 


“Der Waffenlose Wachter,” edited and published 
by Samuel Ernst, in Lancaster County, Pennsyl- 
vania, and later issued from Olathe, Kansas where 
in 1891 it was discontinued. 

“Der Familien Kalender,’ originally issued from 
Mennonite Publishing Co. Elkhart, Indiana. Later 
published at Scottdale, Pennsylvania. 

“Die Mennonitische Rundschau,”’ First pub- 
lished at Elkhart, Indiana, in 1877 and by Menno- 
nite Publishing House, Scottdale, Pa., from 1908 
to 1923, and since then by Herman H. Neufeld, 
Winnipeg, Manitoba. 


B. Later Products in English Literature 


“Genuine Church Music,’ edited by Joseph 
Funk, Mountain Valley, Virginia, and printed in 
1832 by Robinsin and Hollis, Winchester, Va. 

“A Confession of Faith of the Christians known 
by the Name of Mennonite, in Thirty-Three Articles, 
with short Extract of Their Catechism, Also Nine 
Reflections,” by Peter Burkholder. (The same was 
translated from his German Manuscript, by Joseph 
Funk into English, and published at Winchester, 
Virginia, by Robinson and Hollis, in the year 1837.) 

“A Collection of Psalms and Hymns and Spirit- 
ual Songs.” This was first issued in 1846 and is the 
first edition of an English hymn book put out by 
Mennonites in America. It was compiled without 
song staff by a committee of three appointed by the 
Virginia congregations,—composed of Joseph Funk, 
David Hartman, and Joseph Wenger. The first 
edition of this work contained an appendix and was 


110 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


printed at Winchester, Virginia. Later editions 
were printed by Joseph Funk and Sons, Singers 
Glen, Virginia, while the sixth edition was printed 
in 1880 by Mennonite Publishing Co., Elkhart, In- 
diana. 

From this last edition the German hymns in the 
appendix were eliminated and _ sixty-five English 
hymns substituted. The committee selected for com- 
piling the new list were Emanuel Suter, Michael 
Shank, and John S. Coffman.* 

“The Harmonicas Sacra; a-standard® work “on 
sacred music was edited and first printed on the 
press of Joseph Funk at Singers Glen, Virginia, in 
the year 1847. By 1870 this work had run through 
seventeen editions, and the total number sold by 
that time was 80,000 copies. 

In the year 1915 the eighteenth edition of this 
work was published by Mennonite Publishing House, 
Scottdale, Pennsylvania, by Noah Blosser, Dale 
Enterprise, Va., a relative of Joseph Funk.7 


* It should be mentioned that this committee while occupied 
with its work had one original hymn donated to this 
list by Mrs. Annie L. Price, the wife of the Presby- 
terian minister then at Mt. Clinton, Va. This hymn is 
being sung far and wide throughout our Mennonite con- 
gregations in the United States and Canada. It is No. 
49 in Church and Sunday School Hymnal:— 

“Above the trembling elements, 
Above life’s restless sea, 

Dear Saviour, lift my spirit up— 
Oh, lift me up to thee.” 


+ The impulse and love for sacred song given from the use 
of this book went forth as a great wave among thous- 
ands of people in a number of the eastern states. 
Harvest hands and haymakers spent the noon hour 
singing. Sunday afternoon gatherings of the young 
people in homes, school houses, and churches were en- 


OF INFORMATION 111 


“Conversation on Saving Faith for the Young,” 
translated and arranged by a committee at Berlin 
(now Kitchener,) Ontario, in 1856. 

This work became the basis on which the 
Minister’s Manual was compiled and issued from 
Mennonite Publishing Company, Elkhart, Indiana, 
in 1890. Still later an edition of the original was 
published in 1921 by John W. Weaver, Union Grove, 
Pennsylvania. 

“An Address to the Young,” by Christian Burk- 
holder, of New Holland, Pennsylvania. In 1857 
printed in English at Berlin (now Kitchener) On- 
tario. 

The Canadian Edition of “Psalms and Hymns 
and Spiritual Songs” with German Appendix was 
arranged by a committee of that country in the 


vear 1758. 


“The Musical Advocate and Singers’ Friend,” 
published at Singers Glen, Virginia, by Joseph Funk 
and Sons. This periodical was issued monthly for 
some years, the first number appearing in July, 1859. 


“This journal was discontinued during the Civil 
War, but after the cessation of hostilities, it was re- 





gaged for hours in tireless singing, while in some cases 
soldiers took the Harmonia Sacra along with them to 
camp, where the weary hours were whiled away in 
sacred song. 

Those who were children and young people of 
those early days are now the old people of today. In 
keeping with the noble sentiment created in early life, 
it is a custom well preserved in many of these com- 
munities for having old people’s song services as an 
annual occasion in most all churches regardless of de- 
nominational lines. 


112 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


newed under the firm name of Joseph Funk’s Sons 
(the senior member having died, Dec. 24, 1862). 

“The Herald of Truth” was established at Chi- 
cago, Illinois, in 1864 by John F. Funk & Brother. It 
was long issued as a monthly by the same firm at 
Elkhart, Indiana. After becoming well established 
as the representative publication for the Mennonite 
Church, it became a weekly issue. Since its taking 
over in 1908 by the Mennonite Publication Board, 
Scottdale, Pernsylvania, it is known as “Gospel 
Herald.” 

“The Family Almanac,” was first published by 
John F. Funk & Brother in 1870 at Eikhart, Indiana. 
It is now issued from Scottdale, Pennsylvania. 

“An Intermediate Question Book,” first pub- 
lished in 1880 and “A Primary Question Book,” ap- 
pearing in 1883, was edited and approved by a com- 
mittee in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and print- 
by the Mennonite Publishing Company. 

“The Watchful Pilgrim,’ published at Dale 
Enterprise, Virginia, by Abram Blosser in 1880. It 
continued as a monthly publication for a number 
of years, until failing health of the editor required 
its discontinuance. 

“The Martyrs’ Mirror’ was published in Englist: 
in the year 1886. It is a volume of eleven hundred 
pages that was issued for the first time in that 
language by Mennonite Publishing Company. The 
translation of this work was made from the Dutch 
edition of 1660 by a noted linguist, John F. Sohm, 
who in the “Translator’s Preface,” states that the 
closest attention and energy of nearly three years 
were required to complete the work. Among the 


OF INFORMATION 113 


many difficulties that were met was that the original 
was written in a language that had long since be- 
come obsolete, and that there was no dictionary 
‘available to get the true meaning of many words 
used in the original text. 

Notwithstanding the many difficulties that were 
met in making the translation, it is evident that this 
is by far the most authentic version of the history 
of Christian martyrs of the past, and by which the 
present generation may know of the testimony of 
their forefathers, which they gave even to the ex- 
tremity of great bodily suffering and death. It is 
one of the few books extant by which believers of 
today may live and abide in the company of the 
apostles and martyrs of the centuries of world his- 
tory gone by. 

Some of our people have laid this book aside 
long before its perusal had been finished, because of 
the harrowing and heart-rending accounts of torture 
and suffering that are given; but aside from the 
Bible itself there is possibly no other book that 
should serve more as a stimulant and a means of 
fortitude to the persecuted and oppressed Menno- 
nites of to-day. 

“The Church and Sunday School Hymnal,” was 
arranged by a committee composed of Eli S. Hall- 
man, D. D. Miller, and J. S. Shoemaker. The first 
edition of this work was printed in 1902 by Ruebush- 
Kieffer Company, Dayton, Virginia. A Supplement 
was added in 1911. It is still in common use in 
our congregations. 

“The Gospel Witness,’ was founded at Scott- 
dale, Pennsylvania, in 1905 by the Gospel Witness 


114 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Co. It continued as a weekly publication until it 
was merged with the “Herald of Truth” and became 
known as “Gospel Herald.” 

“Infant Lesson Book for use in Sunday Schools,” 
edited and compiled by John S. Coffman in 1880. 
It is a booklet of fifty yages, and consists of ques- 
tions and answers for very young learners. It was 
printed under the sanction of the bishops of the 
Lancaster Conference of Mennonites and was issued 
by Mennonite Publishing Company. 

“Life Songs,” issued from Scottdale, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1916, after being compiled by a committee 
composed by C. Z. Yoder, [pt Jekabinie Sp 18. Coff- 
man, S. R. Good, Ed. Miller, and Walter S. Yoder. 


(Aah aed MOIR OO 


HOW MENNONITES LIVED IN FORMER 
GENERATIONS 


The following chapter comprises in part a con- 
tribution from the writer that appeared in “The 
Family Almanac” of 1924, 

Likely there are many people of the present 
generation who are able to recall the kind of litera- 
ture used by our forebears, and what were their man- 
ner of life and habits of industry several generations 
ago. 

Mementos and souvenirs are occasionally found 
that portray in vivid form certain aspects of early 
life among our people, and which suggests the use 
of some long-forgotten and unthought-of things, of 
which brief mention is made in this article. 


Die Ganze Heilige Schrift 


We have on our desk a comparatively small 
pocket edition, size 4 by 6 German Bible, printed 
at Marburg in Europe in 1740 by Johann Heinrich 
Stocks. Besides the thirty-nine books of the Old 
Testament and the twenty-seven of the New Testa- 
ment, this work also contains the fourteen Apocry- 
phal books. Another department sets many of the 
Psalms, each to a separate staff of music in which 
there is no harmony of parts, as only a single line 
of melody appears. 

“A Gesangbuch” (hymn book), department fol- 


116 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


lows with a long list of “Catechismus” for the benefit 
of young readers and Bible students. 

The most remarkable feature about this work is 
its smallness in bulk, its width and thickness being 
about the same, while the size of type is about one 
erade larger than the microscopic. This book is an 
evidence that the young and rising generation was 
by no meanns neglected in the early pioneer home. 
Another book of this class lies before me bearing 
title of “Der Kleine Kempis.” ‘The contents appear 
in form of Scripture quotations, proverbs and prayers 
edited by Thomas A. Kempis in 1450 and reprinted 
in 1795 by Peter Leibert, Germantown, Pa. 


The Large Folio Bible 


Hidden from view on some out of the way shelf 
of our family libraries, or under the pulpit desks of 
some of our more ancient places of worship, are to 
be found some of the older folio size German Bibles 
that were printed at Nuremberg in Europe 135 to 
150 years ago. These were brought to America by 
the first settlers and home makers among our peo- 
ple. These rare old relics are today an evidence that 
the sacred Scriptures were read and studied with a 
degree of veneration that speaks volumes for the 
pious prayer-life of our ancestors of several genera- 
tions ago. 

The writer has in his possession a Nuremberg 
Bible of 1788. This volume is gotten out in heavy 
board binding and covered with sheepskin in natural 
color. The corners are ornamented with metal clips 
and the sides held together with tight holding clasps. 
This work also contains as many as 150 wood en- 


OF INFORMATION 117 


gravings that set forth in striking imagery the promi- 
nent scenes represented in Bible History. Another 
interesting department of these old Family Bibles 
appears in the pages set apart for entering dates 
of births, marriages and deaths. Record is found 
here of generations long past that would otherwise 
be lost because in our earliest burying grounds, 
gravestones now marking their last resting places 
on earth are either entirely barren of inscription 
from the beginning, or their tracings have become 
obliterated by the hand of time. 

The tradition is handed down to our day, that 
in those early times the peculiar though sacred 
custom prevailed that when preparing to occupy a 
vacant or newly made home, the family permitted 
no other article of household furniture to be placed 
inside until the family Bible had first been carried 
in and ceremoniously laid on the altar stand that 
had been provided for it. From this act we get 
conclusive evidence from our forefathers, that among 
all articles of house furnishing, the family Bible 
held first place. 

The first and perhaps the only original “Guten- 
berg” Bible to reach America, was sold in 1911 at 
public auction at the sale of estate of Robert H. Hoe, 
New York, to Henry P. Huntington, at the amazing 
price of $50,000. This Bible was printed in Latin 
in about the year 1455 and was set up in Gothic or 
old German type and consisted of 1,282 pages ar- 
ranged in two columns with forty-two lines each. 


The Old Grandfather’s Clock 


This ancient article of house furnishing for the 


118 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


pioneer home took the form of a number of wooden 
wheels, that were unprotected by case or cover, but 
operated behind a dial face. Over this moved what 
were termed a set of beckoning hands to indicate the 
lapse of time by hours, minutes and seconds. The 
motive power of this kind of clock was furnished by 
deep, bucket-like receptacles, suspended by brass 
chains, that were filled with scraps of iron, lead, and 
other heavy material, under the proper weight was 
attained for keeping the mechanism in motion and 
the low-hung pendulum at the proper swing. The 
clock was wound up by means of a draw chain that 
turned a winding drum and drew up the weighted 
bucket on one side, while the chain was unwinding 
itself on the other. 

The machinery of the clock was usually balanced 
on one or more pegs fastened in the wall, while the 
weights with their long, pendant chains hung in full 
view below. In later years the pioneer clock became 
inclosed in a tall case—narrow in the middle, but 
wider at bottom to afford plenty of room for the 
pendulum to continue its swing. 


The Sausage Chopping Block 


During the butchering season in pioneer days 
the loud clattering noise made by the sausage chop- 
ping machine was carried by the winds far and wide 
over a neighborhood, and invariably marked the 
advent of fresh satisage for every table on that par- 
ticular date. The beautiful custom prevailed with 
the housewife to send messes to all neighbors who 
lived within hearing of the sausage machine when 
in operation. This machine was so constructed that 


OF INFORMATION 119 


a large revolving block two feet or more in diameter, 
with properly cupped edges, became the receptacle 
in which the meat was placed. Over that was 
fastened a heavy frame bearing a number of strong, 
wooden springs. “To each of these were attached a 
sharp knife of about a foot in length. 

A shaft containing sprocket arms, being swiftly 
turned by hand, tipped up the springs and by this 
means the knives made rapid strokes on the meat as 
it lay underneath on the block. By means of a 
pulley and belt the block was made to turn slowly 
round and round, and within but a short time the 
meat was cut almost as fine as mush. As compared 
with the modern ground article old residents say 
that the only real sausage that has been palatable to 
their taste is that which came from the old time 
cutting block. 


The Old Dutch Oven 


It is known that the early pioneers of our coun- 
try were seldom without their daily feast of warm 
bread. This was baked before the kitchen fireplace 
in a low, iron pot standing on legs. Over this was 
closely fitted a brim-shaped lid; when, with hot 
coals shoveled underneath as well as over the hat- 
shaped lid on top, the sponge of dough within was 
quickly baked into bread that was of a lightness 
and flavor calculated to please the taste and soothe 
the appetite of the most fastidious. 


The Little Spinning Wheel and Reel 


The deft little spinning wheel with its musical 
hummer, the wing spool, was long held as a most 
ingenious and useful household article. The wheel 


120 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


itself, which was propelled by a foot-treadle, had on 
the outer edge a double groove for two bands, the 
one to run slightly faster the spool on which the 
thread was wound, while the other, going at a little 
slower speed, propelled the wing spool. 

By this means the spinner was enabled to draw 
from a bunch of flax or tow placed in the distaff 
above, a fine but strong single thread as it rolled 
through a hollow spindle. After several hours’ run- 
ning, the main spool became filled. This single 
thread was then wound off on a reel which continued 
to run until a mechanism turned by the hub of the 
reel made a quick, keen snap. This indicated that 
one cut of yarn had been wound off. This was 
secured by cross-tying, and after a certain number 
of cuts had been unwound on the reel, the whole 
was slipped off and twisted into the form of a hank, 
similar to that in which cotton yarn is prepared for 
market. 

The Linen Button 

In being shown some of the garments worn by 
our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers, there 
appears the linen button. This on examination turns 
out to be a tightly wound and compactly sewed to- 
gether linen ball. This, fastened to the proper 
place on a garment, answers all the purposes of the 
modern flat button. The seamstress of the great- 
grandmother period, with the use of the bone needle, 
made by hand, not only the buttons and button 
holes, but cut and sewed together every article of 
clothing worn by herself and family, much of which 
was of the texture of fine and durable homespun 
linen. 


OF INFORMATION 121 


In drawing a comparison between the rules 
and customs of the present day and age, and the 
good old days of the forefathers, we became struck 
most of all with the simple, free life that they lived 
in God’s great out-of-doors of their time. 

From traveling afoot, it seems a long step for- 
ward to horseback travel, which formed in the 
horse and his rider one of the finest combinations 
of life on earth. Later came days of wagons 
and carryalls, and still later came wagons with 
dashboards and spring-seats, to be followed by two- 
wheeled and four wheeled buggies, stage coaches, 
and railroad trains. 

In a few more generations the pace quickened 
to bicycles and automobiles, and then the race be- 
tween Mennonites and the world really began. Our 
people in large measure are now drawn into the 
mad rush and whirl of auto traffic streaming over 
the open thoroughfares of our country. 

What shall we have next? Will it be aircraft 
in the form of monoplanes, biplanes, and zeppelins? 
Are our well-to-do people who now buy expensive 
automobiles for their children destined to next pur- 
chase airplanes for their boys to make daring ex- 
ploits and maneuvers through the air? Yes, we are 
living in a wonderfully progressive age—but ah! we 
are also moving with the uncontrollable current of 
a fast age. 

Let the burden of our prayers be to the end 
that the Mennonite Church be spared from the aw- 
ful maelstrom that threatens its destruction. 


CHAPTER: XXII 


EFFORTS FOR ESTABLISHING A 
RECONCILIATION 


In the light of conditions mentioned in the pre- 
vious chapter it should be stated that from the 
years 1858 to 1860 some strong action was taken 
for submitting terms to bring about if possible a 
reconciliation between some estranged factions that 
had severed connection with the main body of the 
Church. Officials of the Church were divided as to 
the wisdom of considering any overtures from the 
belligerents as conditions for peace. It was found 
that the active supporters of the movement were 
largely of the latter class and hence were not in all 
respects in harmony with the tenets of faith and 
discipline for which the parent body stood. Wisely 
or unwisely, many officials stood aloof from the 
movement. 


It was a most critical time, and it is held by 
strong men of the Church today that had the recon- 
ciliation been effected, and the proposed General 
Conference for all Mennonites been organized at 
that time, most of the still greater rifts and divisions 
that have happened to the Church since then might 
have been averted. 

At the time of this period of great unrest 
throughout the Church, Martin Burkholder, one of 
the prominent Bishops of the Virginia Conference, 
started on a horseback journey to Pennsylvania, 


OF INFORMATION 123 


where he used his influence and effort for estab- 
lishing a General Conference as a means for main- 
taining the government and discipline of the Menno- 
nite Church. From Pennsylvania, Bro. Burkholder 
journeyed on to Canada, and still later reached the 
congregations in eastern Ohio. While here, he made 
the discovery that whatever favorable sentiment he 
had been able to create during his journey through 
Pennsylvania and Canada had been counteracted 
and reversed by brethren who had followed his track 
for that purpose. Finding that his efforts were 
fruitless, he returned home, and near the close of 
the year 1860 he became seriously sick and died at 
the age of forty-three. His taking away in the 
prime of life, and in the midst of its greatest activity, 
was the occasion for lament and deep mourning 
among the congregations where he labored. 

From 1870 to 1877 there was great influx of 
Mennonites to the United States and Canada from 
Russia. More than a thousand families located in 
Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Manitoba. At 
least five hundred families are said to have located 
in Kansas alone. Though the main body of Menno- 
nites of America contributed largely to the support 
of the fund required for their passage to our shores, 
and also after their arrival in their new quarters, of 
the 10,000 Russians who reached America during 
the seventies, only a few of them affiliated with the 
main body while most of them allied themselves 
with what are now known as the General Conference 
Mennonites, the Holdemanites, and other bodies 
who had become separated from the mother Church. 

One commendable characteristic of the Russian 


124 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Mennonites is seen in the fact that they were able 
to preserve their literature and their native language 
through all the privations and hindrances in Russia, 
as well as during the fifty years since their location 
in America. 

When Cornelius Jansen and his son, Peter Jan- 
sen, arrived in Virginia on a prospecting trip for 
homes for their people, it was found that both could 
speak fluently in German and also had good com- 
mand of the Russian language. They seemed much 
impressed with the country around Dale Enterprise. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


PLANS FOR ESTABLISHING GENERAL 
CONFERENCE UNITY 


Mention has already been made regarding a 
movement made more than sixty years ago looking 
to the establishment of a General Conference for the 
Mennonite Church proper in America. Sentiment 
favorable to General Conference took form with the 
Amish Mennonite brethren, and for twenty-six years, 
“Diener Versammlung” (Ministers’ Meetings) were 
held at stated periods from 1862 to 1878; but from 
lack of perfect unity among all the ministers who 
assembled in large bodies from as far east as Penn- 
sylvania, and as far west as Iowa, it seemed more 
and more difficult to get all congregations repre- 
sented to work together in harmony. 


Almost a quarter century was allowed to roll by 
following these earlier efforts to get General Con- 
ference oversight to be recognized among Menno- 
nites or for sufficient strength to materialize for 
establishing permanent union. In the year 1890, 
correspondence and editorial comment began in 
earnest through the “Herald of Truth” as a medium, 
and sufficient sentiment was created for nine out 
of the fourteen of the Mennonite and Amish Menno- 
nite conferences to give favorable expression for a 
General Conference. 


The five local conferences that had, up until this 
time withheld their approval, were Lancaster, Fran- 


126 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


conia, Washington Co. Md., Franklin Co. Pa., 
Eastern A. M., and Virginia. These eastern confer- 
ences were all united by the peculiar ties of kinship, 
as well as by a bond of fellowship that had been 
long kept warm by an exchange of helpful visits 
regularly made between them. Hence none of these 
felt so much in need of the unifying effect that was 
so keenly felt by the smaller and far more scattered 
congregations of the western states. 

After a number of years more of personal con- 
sultation and correspondence between leaders of the 
Church east and west, the time seemed ripe for some 
difinite step to be taken. A committee of five rep- 
resentatives from as many western conferences met 
at the Union Church, Tazewell Co. Ill., on Thursday 
May 7, 1896. The five brethren who were present 
and took part in the deliberations of this meeting, 
were Albrecht Schiffler, John N. Durr, E. M. Hart- 
man, D. J. Johns and Daniel Kauffman. 

On organization John N. Durr was made per- 
manent chairman and Daniel Kauffman secretary of 
the committee. A second meeting of this committee 
met at the Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana, on 
Nov. 27, of the same year, with eleven members 
present, at which time it was decided that a pre- 
liminary meeting should be called one year hence 
to consider whether or not a General Conference 
should be called. The committee in making its call 
for a preliminary meeting, outlined the following 
salient points that would in all probability come up 
for consideration at that time. 


“The preliminary meeting is not to be considered as a 
General Conference. We hope to derive many of the advan- 


OF INFORMATION 127 


tages of a General Conference by being brought into con- 
tact with our brethren from various parts of our country 
by becoming better acquainted with one another’s mo- 
tives* * * * There will be no resolutions passed touch- 
ing any question of Church policy on which our people may 
entertain differences of opinion. There will be no author- 
itative action taken that in any way may be the cause of 
the least’sign of division, * * -* *; 

“The questions which the meeting will probably be called 
on to consider, will be something on this order: What is 
the condition of the Church in the different parts of the 
United States and Canada? What can be done that will 
keep our people solidly grounded in the faith, united on 
Gospel principles, and active in service? What should be 
the relation of the General Conference to the District Con- 
ferences? What should be the nature of the General Con- 
ference, how often should it be held and how shall it be 
conducted, etc? * * * * After all this has been done, 


we are ready to answer the question: Shall we have a 
General Conference’’? 

In compliance with the call made by the com- 
mittee, and the definite arrangements that were made, 
the Preliminary Meeting met at the Pike Church 
near Elida, Ohio, Nov. 11, 1897. In this assembly 
all but one of the sixteen different conference 
districts were represented (officially or unofficially) 
and this date goes down on the pages of history 
in the Mennonite Church as one when all present 
deeply felt the seriousness of the occasion as well 
as the grave responsibility committed to each one. 

The great question of all other questions that 
finally came up for decision was as to whether or not 
the call framed by the committee shall be voted for 
in the affirmative. In the discussion some dwelt 
with fervor and earnestness on the great benefits 
that would come to the Church at large. Others, 


128 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


and they were not a few, spoke of the seemingly 
hostile attitude of the large and far more populous 
districts of the east. The thing most greatly feared 
of all was that the action of this body might be 
followed by the peril of a Church riven in twain. 
It was a time of great anxiety that left the fate of 
the General Conference, as it were, trembling in the 
balance. It had become evident that there were 
many brethren present who, in the light of these 
things, were afraid to vote. 

It was at this critical moment that Bence 
Andrew Mack of the Franconia Conference gave an 
earnest address in German that had the effect oj} 
soothing and comforting the fearful and doubting 
brethren. He made it clear to all that the attitude 
of the eastern conferences was not hostile to the 
General Conference movement as it applied to the 
west; that the passive attitude prevailed among 
them because there was no condition there that sug-. 
gested a need for General Conference action. If 
the congregations in the west were in such circum- 
stances that they needed a General Conference, he 
said, we are ready to let them have it, and no one 
need to fear a division or separation in fellowship 
from us because you vote for something that you 
stand so much in need of. We know that you need 
it, and why not vote for it? 

These last sentences he uttered served to greatly 
dispel and remove the doubts and fears that had 
become so manifest. Without further speaking the 
meeting went reverently and confidingly into a sea- 
son of silent prayer, the great question was com- 
mitted to the God of heaven and earth, who was 


OF INFORMATION Wa 


now invoked to speak His will through the brethren. 
The vote was then taken which resulted in almost 
unanimously declaring in favor of a General Con- 
ference. 

The plans outlined by which the General Con- 
ference was to be governed and its business carried 
on was to the effect that it should be composed of 
delegates from all district conferences and congre- 
gations who are in harmony with the Fighteen 
Articles of the Confession of Faith adopted by the 
Conference of Mennonites held at Dort, Holland, in 
the year 1632, and who agree with and are in har- 
mony with the doctrines, teachings, ordinances, and 
rules of order maintained and practiced by the six- 
teen district conferences of the United States and 
Canada. 

The following table shows time and place where 
each meeting was held, number of bishops, minis- 
ters and deacons with names of moderators and 
secretaries who attended and served. The table 
includes the Preliminary Meeting and also the place 
where the session of 1925 is expected to convene. 


MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


130 














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139 


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141 


OF INFORMATION 


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MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


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STOOHOS HOUNHO 





CHAPTER XXVI 


A SUMMARY OF DEATHS WITH SOME 
TRAGICAL EVENTS IN MENNO- 
NITE HISTORY 


Ever since the year 1864, when the Herald of 
Truth was first isued in Chicago, the obituary col- 
umns of the Church have indicated a death roll of 
what might be figured out at no less than five hun- 
dred annually among Mennonite people in the United 
States and Canada. During the period of two gener- 
ations, at such a rate, no less than 30,000 deaths 
must have occurred within the realm of the Church, 
including children as well as adults. 


Again, as we stroll through the forest of grave- 
stones appearing in our older Mennonite cemeteries, 
the convincing thought dawns upon the mind that 
within the past two hundred years, thousands of 
our people have joined other thousands of the in- 
numerable company who have long slumbered be- 
neath the sod. 

The Church records make the recital of the more 
or less commonplace account of such as have died 
from natural causes, by sickness and wasting dis- 
ease. Occasionally, however, mention is made of 
deaths that came suddenly from accidental or other 
unexpected causes. So swift and tragical have 
been the circumstances by which some of our people 
have been overtaken by death, that the memory of 
them lingers with the Church at large for two, three, 


OF INFORMATION 147 


and even four generations after the tragedy occurred. 
These untimely circumstances by which Christian 
people have been hurried into eternity without a 
moment’s warning in part accounts for the fervent 
invocation in some of their prayer books and con- 
fessions of faith: “From swift and sudden death, 
good Lord, deliver us.” 


The score or more instances herewith mentioned 
as having happened to be members of the Mennonite 
Church within the past fifty years are here recorded 
from files of the “Herald of Truth,” the “Gospel 
Witness,” and the “Gospel Herald.” 


Henry Brenneman 


On the date of Aug. 28th, 1872, while his father, J. M. 
Brenneman was sojourning at Union Springs in Rocking- 
ham, Co., Va., his son Henry Brenneman, of Allen EAD 
Ohio was instantly killed by a lightning stroke while he 
and another man were at work in a barn. The two men 
were standing close together, with a horse that was also 
near by. Henry and the horse fell dead, but the other man 
who stood between the two, though stunned by the bolt, 
escaped with his life. The father did not reach home until 
four days after the burial of his son. 


Jacob Blosser 


Early in May 1874 not long after the arrival of himself, 
wife and child from Rockingham County, Virginia, at their 
new home in Morgan County, Missouri, Jacob Blosser and 
his child were crushed to death under the timbers of their 
house which was blown down during the passage of a tor- 
nado storm. The wife was also seriously hurt, but in time 
recovered and returned to her former home in Virginia. 


Caleb W. Burkholder 


Dec. 10, 1890, Caleb W. Burkholder of Harrisonburg, 
Virginia, and youngest son of Bishop Martin Burkholder, 
met death under unusual circumstances while he and_ his 
hired man were hauling fodder. In driving down a steep 
grade Bro. Burkholder lost control of his team, which in 
running under the spreading branches of an apple-tree his 
head struck with such force against a limb as to cause 


148 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


fracture of the skull. The accident was followed by un- 
consciousness and death. 


Lewis Driver 


On Thursday evening of July 2, 1892, while Lewis 
Driver of Mt. Clinton, Virginia, was making effort to close 
the large doors to his barn, the severe storm of wind and 
rain that was prevailing forced one of the doors upon him, 
causing him to fall heavily on the barn floor resulting in a 
fracture of the skull, which was followed by immediate 
insensibility, and later by death. His sudden taking away 
brought a deep and lasting gloom upon the family con- 
nection, and a shock that was felt far and wide throughout 
the Church. 


Pre. Stephen Miller 


(B. 1844—D. 1893) 


On Friday, January 13, 1893, Bro. Stephen Miller, a 
minister serving the Sugar Creek congregation near Way- 
land, Iowa, left his home to attend a meeting of the Evan- 
gelizing Board at Elkhart, Ind. on January 18. He took 
the train at Wayland. A few miles east of Morning Sun, 
Iowa, the train was wrecked on a trestle-work over a small 
stream. The coach in which Bro. Miller was riding was 
thrown from the trestle. He sustained injuries about the 
head most noticeable in a bruise over one of his eyes near 
the temple. He was taken to a farm home near by and his 
wife came to his bedside but for all that loving hands could 
do he passed away on Tuesday afternoon at one o’clock 
January 17, 1893, at the age of 48 years, 8 months, and 1 day. 


Enos Barge and Barbara Hershey 


Shortly before one o’clock in the morning of July 26, 
1896, there occurred a most dreadful accident at the railroad 
crossing near Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. It was at this 
late hour in the night that three couples in buggies were 
driving homeward from a party. One of the buggies had 
just crossed and the second, in which were Enos Barge and 
Barbara Hershey, was on the track, when along came a 
special train rushing at high speed. In a moment the buggy 
was reduced to splinters and the occupants instantly killed— 
portions of the body of the girl were strewn along the 
track for the distance of one hundred yards—while the 
young man had one of his arms cut off and his body other- 
wise frightfully mutilated. 

For generations before this incident it had become 
customary with many young people of Mennonite parentage 
to generally move with the current of the world and to 


OF INFORMATION 149 


avoid any Church relation before marriage and becoming 
settled in life. 

This tragic incident resulted in such a profound awak- 
ening that both old and young saw the need of giving the 
best years of life to God. A great wave of religious con- 
viction passed over the Church, and young people came 
flocking into the fold of the Church in unusual numbers. 


Samuel Steman 


On May 26, 1906, Samuel Steman of Allen County, 
Ohio, met death suddenly by drowning while making des- 
perate effort to save his son Clifford from the same fate. 
The boy had fallen into the water while they were fishing. 
Those on the bank succeeded in drawing Clifford to the 
shore in time to save his life, but the body of his father 
sank into deep water from which it could not be rescued 
until after life had become extinct. A large circle of kindred 
aud friends were made to deeply grieve and lament over this 
untimely departure of a husband and father, 


C. M. Beechy 


The story of the sudden death of C. M. Beechy of 
Springs, Pennsylvania, is of interest to many. In the early 
part of February, 1906, while a committee of brethren were 
in the church earnestly considering things of vital interest 
to the congregation, Bro. Beechy was on the roof fixing 
something at the flue. Suddenly his feet slipped and he 
feil headforemost to the ground. Neighbors saw him fall 
and rushed to his aid, but he lived only a few minutes. 


Adeline V. Brunk 


The circumstances of Adeline V. Brunk leaving friends 
and home at Elkhart, Indiana, for missionary work at 
Hadjin, Turkey, and her untimely death soon after her 
arrival there, forms a chapter in the history of the Mennonite 
Church, of which the reading never fails to send a thrill 
through many hearts in America. Under date of Sept. 11, 
1906, she in company with six missionaries set sail on the 
Pannonia from New York harbor and when after a voyage 
and overland horseback journey, which together required 
over two months, her field of missionary labor was reached 
at Hadjin. At the completion of so long a journey she ex- 
perienced great joy in entering upon her work as a mission- 
ary. Three weeks after her arrival at Hadjin, an epidemic 
of typhus fever of a violent form broke out by which she and 
others were stricken and from which she died on Dec. 11, 
1906, three months to the day after setting sail from 
America. 


150 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


To be buried away in that far-off land, separated from 
friends, home and kindred, made the bereavement doubly 
sad to the relatives left behind, and spread a gloom of 
sorrow over the whole Church in her native land. This 
missionary field was under the auspices of Mennonite Breth- 
ren in Christ, and Sister Brunk sailed with their missionaries. 


Joseph W. Wenger 


On November 6, 1907, as Joseph W. Wenger, aged 78 
years, a preacher in the Groffsdale District, in Lancaster 
County, for over fifty years was driving home from a funeral 
alone, he was struck by a P. R. R. train near New Holland 
and was instantly killed; his body having been thrown 
nearly one hundred feet. He could be recognized only by 
his clothing and by his carriage. 

He was a colaborer with Noah H. Mack, and Isaiah 
Witmer. 


Anna M. Buckwalter 


On May 30, 1910 at Steel’s Crossing near Ronks, Pa., 
on P. R. R.. occurred the sudden deaths of Annie M. wife of 
Phares Buckwalter and their twelve year old daughter, 
Lelia L., from being struck by a fast train. Elizabeth 
Lehman, the mother and grandmother who was with them, 
was also seriously hurt and died afterwards as is supposed 
from her injuries. In this instance, life was snuffed out so 
suddenly for the mother and daughter that we are made to 
understand that there is but a step between us and death. 


Jacob and Alfred Garber 


In the months from March to September, 1909, there 
occurred in Mennonite families a succession of fatal acci- 
dents that were country wide in their distribution. 

On Aug. 30, 1909, two brothers, sons of Chris. and Lena 
Garber, aged sixteen and fourteen years respectively, of 
Kokomo, Ind., met death very suddenly and unexpectedly 
while driving together in a two-horse wagon. Reaching the 
R. R. crossing near town, they were at the same instant 
met by a passing train and hurled from their seats, Jacob’s 
body being thrown two hundred feet away, while Alfred’s 
body was dragged for five hundred feet and met instant 
death. Jacob’s skull was crushed and he lived only a short 
time after the accident. 


' Martin Blosser 
On March 20, 1909, Deacon Martin Blosser of Concord, 
Tennessee, lost his life by drowning in a large pond near 
where he lived. While stretching a wire fence across the 


OF INFORMATION 151 


pond it was necessary for him to cross and re-cross in a 
small float or raft. ‘In this he had crossed to the opposite 
side and while on the return trip, the raft for some reason 
overturned, causing him to fall into the water and sink to 
the bottom where it was from ten to fifteen feet deep. The 
only eye-witnesses were two small grand-sons who ran to 
the house to give the alarm. The body was not recovered 
until five hours after the accident. 


John Slabach 


September 12, 1909, at Clio, California, occurred the 
sudden death of John Slabach. As engineman in steering 
his train around a deep curve, the engine, with the impact 
of the whole train behind him, collided with a heavily loaded 
gravel car. Without a moment’s warning he was hurled into 
eternity. His death brought deep sorrow to a father and 
mother of whom he was an only son, and to a grief-stricken 
wife with a babe of but six weeks old. 


John Wesley Stevanus 


John Wesley Stevanus of Springs Pennsylvania, very 
suddenly lost his life at Rawlings Station on the B. & O., 
R. R. Sept. 13, 1909, from being struck by the engine of an 
express train. First his body was thrown high into the air, 
and falling on the track, the entire train passed over and 
horribly mangled his body. This accident strongly verified 
the saying: “in the midst of life we are in death.” 


John M. Wenger 


On September 14, 1909 occurred the distressing accident 
when John M. Wenger of Dayton, Va., in going to the top 
of his silo to make some adjustment on the roof, fell the 
distance of thirty feet on the inside to the hard cement 
floor at the bottom. The fall caused his skull to be crushed, 
his nose and both legs to be broken, and his body to be- 
come otherwise bruised and mangled. After being picked 
up and carried to the house, it was found that life was not 
extinct. He lived for nearly two days after the accident. 


Etta Weaver Grove 


Etta Weaver Grove, wife of Charles M. Grove of South 
Boston, Virginia, was instantly killed by lightning at the 
time of an approaching thunder shower on the evening of 
June 21, 1910. She had been with her husband in the field 
and was going toward the house in advance of him, when 
there came a bolt of lightning and a loud clap of thunder. 
The charge was so severe that parts of her clothing became 
ignited and portions of her body burned. Surely, in the 
midst of life we are in death. 


152 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


David F. Hauck 


David F. Hauck of Intercourse, Pennsylvania, came to 
his death by falling from his horse that had stumbled in 
the road on the evening of Dec. 23, 1911. The fall produced 
a fracture of the skull, which was followed by wuncon- 
sciousness and later by death. 


Elmer H. Hershey 


On Feb. 10, 1912 Elmer H. Hershey was instantly killed 
at the Gordonsville Crossing on the P. R. R. in Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania, from being struck by one of the fast 
trains passing that point. 

He was an applicant for membership with the Menno- 
nite Church at Hershey but he was called into eternity be- 
fore the baptismal service was performed. In a case like 
this, confession was made unto salvation. 


Isa Viola Layman 


Nov. 26, 1912 is a memorable one in the history of the 
Warwick River congregation near Denbigh, Va., because of 
the fire that swept away the dwelling of Levi J. Shenk, not 
sparing the lives of four of the inmates. John C. Layman 
and family, including his wife, Isa Viola and two children, 
had temporarily made their home with them. The four who 
lost their lives in the merciless flames were Isa Viola Lay- 
man, her two children, Isaac Berry, aged about two years, 
David Martin, aged nearly ten months, and Mabel Re- 
becca daughter of Levi J. Shenk, aged a little over three 
years. Desperate efforts were made to save the unfor- 
tunates, but to no avail—except in the instance where 
Amanda M., wife of Levi J. Shank, ran through the flames 
and saved her yotfhgest child, a babe of six months. In 
this heroic act the mother was severely burned. 


Samuel G. Lapp 


Mennonite ministers frequently travel by rail to reach 
distant congregations. On Saturday July 3rd, 1916, while 
making one such journey, in many respects similar in object 
and errand, which he and other Mennonite ministers had 
made in safety before, Bishop Samuel G. Lapp, of South 
English, Iowa, met sudden and most unexpected death, by 
reason of the railway coach he was seated in breaking 
through a section of bridge at Packard, Iowa, and falling 
into deep water below. The coach being almost entirely 
submerged, he and other passengers became hopelessly en- 
trapped and were quickly drowned. His sudden taking away 
at a point fully a hundred miles from home, came as a severe 


OF INFORMATION 153 


blow to the immediate family, his congregation at home, 
and the Church at large. 


John W. Weaver 


On Dec. 24, 1917, John W. Weaver of the vicinity of 
Ligonier, Indiana took a passenger to the train by horse 
and buggy. In turning to recross the railroad tracks the 
buggy in which he was seated was struck by the engine of 
the Chicago Limited that came rushing up at great speed 
and was broken into fragments and he ‘himself instantly 
killed by the shock. His body was carried for the distance 
of ten miles on the pilot of the engine before the trainmen 
discovered that anything had been struck, or that a life 
had been hurried into eternity. 

The body was removed from the pilot of the engine at 
Elkhart as an unknown man, but it was later identified by 
friends and a message sent to the waiting family at home. 
The next day proved to be a most sad and gloomy Christ- 
mas Day for the grief-stricken family. 


D. D. Lichti 


The most unfortunate accident of Sept. 13, 1917 by the 
entering of a fork handle into the body while making a 
jump into the hay mow, caused the untimely death of Daniel 
D, Lichti of Noble, Iowa. 

Death coming to one in the full prime of life was a 
great shock to the grief-stricken family and a large circle of 
friends and acquaintances. 


D. W. Good and Katharine Lee 


Daniel W. Good and Katherine Lee of Concord, Tennes- 
see met instant death by being struck by the Memphis 
Special on the Southern R. R. near Knoxville, June 2, 1918. 
He was driving a milk truck on which were two other 
passengers, who escaped unhurt. It was a case of two 
being taken and two that were left. The funeral that fol- 
lowed was a sad occasion for the little congregation in 
Tennessee. 


Ethan Garber 
Ethan Garber, the eldest son of Bishop David Garber 
was drowned in Warwick river near Denbigh, Va., while 


in bathing with others and, unobserved to his companions, 
had gotten into deep water that was beyond his depth. 


Nora Weidman 


On Sept. 10, 1920, Nora Weidman, of Lancaster, Penn- 
sylvania, while in the act of getting fire started for pre- 
paring breakfast for her family and in urging it to start to 


154 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


burning, she poured coal oil into the stove. There followed 
a terrific explosion that set her clothing all ablaze. Before 
the flames could be extinguished by her husband who rushed 
to her relief, her body had become so badly burned, that 
death resulted at an early hour in the afternoon. 


Daniel W. Driver 


On Aug. 17, 1921, a deep gloom was cast over the en- 
tire Church in Virginia over the finding of the unconscious 
body and untimely death of Daniel W. Driver of Waynes- 
boro, Virginia. In the barnyard where he was found by 
his wife and little boy, was a bull, never known before this 
to have been dangerous. When found, his nose was broken 
and his head bruised and the skull crushed. 

His sudden departure from this life was a severe blow 
to a widowed mother, a sorrowing wife and three children, 
two brothers and a sister, as well as a large circle of friends 
and family connections. 


Jonas Beechy and Mother 


A very sad accident happened on April 6, 1922 at 
Myersdale, Pennsylvania, when Jonas Beechy was assisting 
his mother, the wife of Rufus M. Beechy, across the rail- 
road tracks. At the same moment one of the fast trains of 
the B. & O. R. R. came along when both mother and son 
were hurried into eternity. Their swift and sudden death 
brought deep and sincere sorrow to many homes. 


Clayton H. Kratz 


Under date of May 7, 1922 a letter written by Katie 
Peters, Near Halbstadt, Russia, gives the last account of 
Clayton H. Kratz of Souderton, Pennsylvania, who had 
been for some time in the Near East on the relief work 
of the Church. His capture by the Bolshevists the second 
time makes it highly probable that his life was taken and 
no more will ever be heard from him. 


Paul Raymond Kauffman 


Among the items chronicled in this chapter it occurs 
to us that mention should be made of the incident of the 
drowning of Paul R. Kauffman in the Elkhart river at 
Goshen, Indiana, on Dec. 27, 1922. He was out skating and 
unconsciously getting on thin ice, broke through and was 
drowned before assistance could be given him. His body 
remained under water for more than an hour before it was 
rescued, 


Daniel Rose 
Neither should we omit the name of Daniel Rose, the 


OF INFORMATION 155 


wonderful whittler of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. As an 
apparently helpless invalid the death messenger came swift 
and sudden, in an automobile accident by which his rigid 
body was hurled out upon the solid roadway. 


Peter R. Nissley 


Bishop Peter R. Nissley, of Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania, came 
to his death in a most mysterious may, as was first supposed, 
from falling off a hay loft; but by a later clue death must 
have come at the hand of a self-confessed assassin. As he 
never lived to tell how it happened, the exact circumstances 
attending his death may never be known to mortals. 


Arthur T. Moyer 


The tragic death of Arthur T. Moyer, superintendent 
of Welsh Mountain Industrial Mission near New Holland, 
Pennsylvania, is still fresh in the memory of many people. 
Hearing something outside late one evening, he went out 
to see what was the matter. He found two colored men 
stealing corn, when one of them took aim and shot him. 
He died shortly after this; living long enough, however, to 
breathe forgiveness and to express a deep concern for the 
poor man’s soul. 


L.. LL. Hartzler 


Pre. L. L. Hartzler of West Liberty, Ohio, came to his 
death very suddenly, Aug. 20, 1924, by falling off a thrash- 
ing machine while on the road. Earnest in his preaching, 
the suddenness of his calling away proved to be one of his 
most effective sermons. 


John M. Hartzler 


Of a similar nature was the death of -Pre. John M. 
Hartzler of Belleville, Pennsylvania. While painting his 
neighbor’s house, March 26, 1925, he fell off the ladder and 
sustained injuries from which he died the following day. 
It was a severe and sudden shock for both family and con- 
gregation. 


John Rankins and Others 


As to other recent tragical deaths among Mennonites 
that should appear with this list are those of John Rankins 
of Stuart’s Draft, Virginia, who was shot from an unknown 
cause and instantly killed; Olie Kisamore of Spruce Moun- 
tain, West Virginia, who was instantly killed by a log 
skidding endwise down the mountain side and striking the 
tree behind which he was standing; the most tragical death 
of Dorothy Kauffman of Westover, Maryland, at the hand of 
a cruel murderer; and the instant death of Paul Gehman, 


156 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


East Salem, Pennsylvania from being run over by a loaded 
truck, following his fall from the load. 


Destructive Storm at Thurman, Colorado 


Along with this list of tragedies that have happened to 
Mennonite homes in years past, we conclude with the out- 
standing event of Aug, 10, 1924, at Thurman, Colorado, 
when swift and sudden death came in a wholesale manner 
to ten victims, who were Sunday afternoon visitors at a 
near-by home following the usual period of Sunday School 
and public worship. The sweeping and destructive force 
of a cyclone made quick work in demolishing the dwelling 
house from the ruins of which were taken the ten bodies 
and those of others who were more or less injured. 


The scene of more than a thousand people assembled 
on the day of the funeral to witness the lowering of eight 
caskets (two others being buried elsewhere) into as many 
graves at the same time, is one that will abide in the 
memory of generations to come. 


The question may arise in many minds as to why the 
God of the universe who has promised protection to His 
people from the storm and provides for their safety in a 
thousand other ways from harm and danger, should have 
permitted such a train of tragedies to befall a quiet and 
peaceable people? The answer comes in this, that it is 
one of His ways for having the proclamation go ringing 
down the generations, along the vistas of the past as well 
as of the future, that human life in this present world is 
a most uncertain issue. 


CHAPTER XXVII 


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT 
MENNONITE LEADERS 


Distributed along the trail of two hundred and 
forty years in the history of the Mennonite Church 
in America, appear the names of men who in their 
ministry never failed to keep well in the fore as 
leaders. In selecting names for the following list 
the best judgment and wisdom of other brethren, 
along with that of the writer has been used, not so 
much according to service and merit that each has 
given, but as a fair representative of the conference 
body in which he labored. In no case does the name 
of a living person appear. We begin with— 


Bishop Wilhem Rittenhuysen 
(B. 1644—D. 1708) 


This name stands first on the list as being pioneer and 
pathfinder for the Mennonite Church in America. His 
ordination to the ministry, and call to the office of bishop 
at a later date, seems to have been brought about through 
the authority and direction of Church officials in Europe. 
History produces the information that he was the first 
minister to serve in the Church in America, that his se- 
lection was made by the congregation at Germantown, and 
that the charge was committed to him by proxy letter 
from some officials of the Church in Europe. 


Pre. Dielman Kolb 
(Be ee le oA) 


Dielman Kolb appears to have been called to the minis- 
try by the Church in Manheim in Europe, and in all prob- 
ability was one of the first Mennonite ministers to cross 
the Atlantic. The others who served the Church at an 
earlier period, were not ordained until after landing in 
America. The most noted work in which he engaged was 


158 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


his association with Heinrich Funck in the translation of 
the ‘“Martyr’s Mirror.” It was through his influence that 
Christopher Dock consented to have his book on “School 
Etiquette” published at an earlier date than he had at first 
designed—that is, not until after his deathh He was a man 
of great influence and one who was given to general ac- 
tivity in the work of the ministry. 


Bishop Heinrich Funck 
(B. .... —D. 1760) 


He is mentioned as one who left much of the impress 
of his personality on people of the second generation of 
Mennonites in this country and served the Church as minis- 
ter and Bishop. He lived on Indian Creek where he es- 
tablished a large mill. He was author of several books, 
that in later times have been republished and widely read by 
Mennonites in Pennsylvania, Canada and elsewhere in the 
States. 


Bisop Jacob Hertzler 
(B. 1703—D. 1786) 


His name comes down from the early days of a century 
and three-quarters past as that of the first Amish Menno- 
nite bishop in America. His life record is preserved to the 
present generation, as having been a most tireless worker 
for the prosperity of the Church. It is said that as a 
disciplinarian, he had few equals. He is the American 
ancestor of a numerous family following that has spread 
into many of the central and western states. 


Bishop Daniel Lehman 
(B. 1742—D. 1810) 


Daniel Lehman was the first Mennonite minister and 
bishop to locate in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, near where 
the Chambersburg Church now stands. This was about the 
year 1795. His ordination to the ministry took place in 
Lancaster county and just before taking final departure for 
his new home he was ordained a bishop to serve in the new 
nen where a membership had been established some years 
before. 


Bishop Peter Eby 


(B. 1765—D. 1843) 


He was a bishop and a strong man for the Church in 
Pennsylvania in the days when the Martin Boehm and John 
Herr factions made their great disturbances in the Lan- 
caster congregations. It was claimed by people of his 


OF INFORMATION 159 


time that he was considered as one of the greatest pulpit 
orators of his day. He was also widely known as a writer 
of ability, in all of which he was sound in doctrine and 
firm in the administration of discipline. In the year 1825 
he was called to Virginia to help settle a difficulty that had 
already caused the Church there to be divided into two 
separate factions. 

At this time the Virginia Church had no conference of 
its own, but each of the two factions claimed allegiance to 
the Lancaster Conference. During the investigation Bro. 
Eby discovered that one side had banded together under a 
written agreement, and his decision at once was that all who 
had signed their names to this paper had withdrawn, not 
only from the Church in Virginia, but also from the Lan- 
caster Conference. When this announcement was made, the 
seceding ones were admonished to admit their mistake and 
in that way be restored to the Church. After a pause of 
earnest and anxious waiting, one of the leaders of the 
seceding fction broke the silence with this exclamation: 
“Es ist uns shicklich zu bei der Gemeinde Stehn.” To this 
Bishop Eby quickly replied, “Das ist an schoener Fuss,” 
The reconciliation that had for five years been so diligently 
sought and prayed for, was from that moment accomplished 
with little more difficulty. Because of this great work, the 
name of Peter Eby long continued as a household word 
with Mennonites in Virginia. 


Bishop Peter Burkholder 


(B. 1783—D. 1846) 


He was one of the bishops who served during the 
earlier period of the Mennonite Church in Virginia, being 
ordained to the ministry when a young man just past 
twenty-one years. His ordination came at a critical period 
when the Church needed to be ably defended against such 
who took decided issue against the mode for baptism by 
pouring, and bread and wine as the visible emblems of 
Christ’s broken body and shed blood. In the year 1815 he 
wrote and had published “Treatise on Baptism and _ the 
Lord’s Supper.” After being called to the bishoprick in 
1837, he compiled and published, “The Confession of Faith 
by the Christians known by the name of Mennonite.” This 
work was published in the English language and at the 
time was issued for the benefit of the young people who 
were no longer being taught to read in German. He was 
the pioneer Mennonite minister in Virginia who responded 
to calls to preach funerals for people other than members 
of his own Church. He was also one much given to mis- 


160 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


sion effort beyond the circle of his own people, it being 
his custom to fill Sunday afternoon appointments in out- 
lying sections within his reach. 


Bishop Jacob Blauch 
(B. 1774—D. 1849) 


He was the pioneer minister and bishop for the now 
large congregation at the Blough Church near Davidsville, 
Pennsylvania. The record of the Church show that his 
services as bishop extended from 1814 to 1849. He stood 
in good favor with all his people and was especially liked 
by the young people. His speaking was in German, and 
in ordinary conversation he was always talkative, yet pleas- 
ant and congenial in his manner of life. He is also re- 
membered as having been a good disciplinarian. 


Pre. Valentine Kratz 


The first minister to serve in Canada was called 
and ordained in 1801. The congregation where he served 
was located in Lincoln county, about twenty miles from 
Niagara Falls. The family names of his people are repre- 
sented in the thriving fold now under the oversight of 
Bishop S. F. Coffman at Vineland, Ontario. Little is known 
of the congregation in those early days, more than that they 
were eager for pastoral care, that Valentine Kratz was the 
first to be ordained to serve them as minister, and that the 
place of worship was called, “The Twenty.” 


Bishop Benjamin Eby 
(B. 1785—D. 1853) 


Benjamin Eby became minister and first bishop to 
serve the Mennonite Church in Waterloo county, Ontario. 
The first meeting house for this section was built on his 
farm at Berlin, now Kitchener. It was a log structure, and 
was for a number of years used also as a school house, in 
which Bro. Eby taught the young during the week and 
preached to his congregation on Sunday. Along with the 
combined duties of school teacher and preacher, he also fol- 
lowed the occupation of printer. He was an able writer 
on subjects relating to the welfare of the Church. One 
important work of which he was author as well as printer, 
on his own printing press, is “A History of the Mennonites.” 
He is remembered as a man of pleasing manners as well as 
one much given to hospitality, both to friends and to the 
way-faring stranger. In the exercise of these as well as 
many other noble traits, he filled the place of one of the 
most noted servants to the Mennonite Church in America. 


OF INFORMATION 161 


Bishop Jacob Moyer 


The first bishop to serve the early Church in Canada 
was Jacob Moyer who was ordained to that office in 1807. 
These early pioneer churches in Canada and their people 
began life in the woods and were exposed to much hardship 
and privation, yet they appear to have been greatly pleased 
with their new homes and the Christian privileges that they 
enjoyed. 


Bishop Henry Steman 
(B. 1780—D. 1858) 


He is remembered as having been one of the pioneer 
leaders of the Mennonite Church in Ohio. His home was 
in Fairfield county where among the original members were 
Brennemans, Beerys, Goods, Shenks, and others who came 
from Virginia. He is mentioned as having been a_ bold 
and fearless preacher of the Gospel, who allowed nothing 
to hinder him from reaching an appointment. 

He frequently made long journeys by horseback, some- 
times having to cross swollen streams in which his horse 
had to swim in order to reach the opposite side. Being a 
great organizer and leader, his personal presence was re- 
quired in distant parts of the state, where in Stark, Wayne, 
and Allen counties there are now large congregations of our 
people located. 


Bishop Martin Burkholder 
(B. 1817—D. 1860) 


He was the fifth and youngest son of Bishop Peter 
Burkholder and succeeded his father in office. In the midst 
of a busy and eventful life, his work was cut short at the 
age of forty-three years. It was at the close of the year 
1860 and just before the breaking out of the Civil War that 
the Church became bereft of this faithful and able shepherd. 
Shortly before his death he had taken prominent steps in the 
effort to adjust some very trying problems that greatly 
disturbed and troubled the Church in that period. 

He was a greatly beloved bishop in the Virginia con- 
gregations and elsewhere, where he was personally known. 
Even at this day the occasion of his death is referred to as 
having been one when deep grief and mourning was felt by 
the Church at large. 

He had lived to see the Church make great gains in his 
district and the establishmeut of an entirely new congre- 
gation within its bounds. 


162 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Pre. John Geil 
(B. 1778— D. 1866) 


In the year 1811, at the age of thirty-three he was 
ordained to the ministry at the Line Lexington Church in 
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He labored here for more 
than fifty years and was regarded by all as one of the 
patriarch fathers of the Church. He is said to have always 
been thoughtful in his manner of speech, and logical and 
fluent in the use of language when preaching. In _ the 
seventy-fifth year of his life he delivered a farewell address 
to his congregation. After this address, he withdrew from 
the activities of life. The last time he left home with the 
expectation of attending public worship, he was stricken with 
bodily sickness on the way and returned to his home, from 
which he was never again able to depart. He is said to 
have been always hopeful, and was given to the disposition 
of taking a bright view of life. Death called him to his 
reward in a ripe old age. 


Bishop Joseph Goldschmidt 
(B. 1796—D. 1876) 


He emigrated to America from Alsace, France, in 1819 
and was the pioneer Amish Mennonite minister in Canada 
and later in Iowa. He was ordained to the ministry in 
Canada in 1824. Later he moved to Butler county, Ohio, 
where he was ordained a bishop in 1838. In the year 1847 
he located permanently in Lee county, Iowa, where the 
first Amish Mennonite congregation was organized in the 
state. In 1855 the congregations in Johnston county and 
Henry county, were given to his care and oversight. As a 
leader and overseer over all these flocks he exercised fatherly 
interest in their welfare. As an influential and aggressive 
worker his ministerial labors and wise counsels were every- 
where appreciated and felt. He died April 26, 1876. 


Shem Zook 
(B. 1798 — D. 1880) 


He was the publisher of a book on Church history and 
came of a line of strong and influential ministers among the 
Amish Mennonites of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. He was 
noted for faithfulness as well as ability. He served the 
Amish Mennonite Conference in the early days as Secretary. 
Though renowned as a Church historian, he avoided as far 
as possible the ascribing of notoriety to his name because 
of his marked ability along these lines. 


OF INFORMATION 163 


Bishop John Geil 
(B. 1799 —D. 1889) 


He was the second son and seventh child of Pre. John 
Geil of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. At the age of about 
twenty-one years he located in Rockingham county, Virginia, 
where unlike other Mennonite ministers he followed the 
long-life occupation of blacksmith, and specialized in making 
sickles for use in the harvest fields of his time, and hand- 
ladles for use by the housewife. In 1840 he was ordained to 
the ministry, and a later date ordained as bishop. He was 
faithful to the Church as a disciplinarian and had the rare 
faculty of descerning when an applicant for membership 
was really sincere and in earnest. When there was the least 
evidence of insincerity manifest, he would positively refuse 
the applicant admittance into the Church. 


Bishop Joseph N. Driver 
(B. 1845—D. 1890) 


He was called to the ministry in 1869 as a young man 
and soon gave evidence of being a speaker of great promise 
and ability. In the great work of preaching the Gospel he 
was always found ready and could adapt himself to any 
occasion or call to deliver messages. In some of his trips 
into the West Virginia field he would sometimes remain 
from thome for a whole month, delivering Gospel messages 
in churches, school houses, and groves. It was his custom 
on these journeys to carry with him a number of copies 
of the Harmonica Sacra, a standard music book of the time, 
and lead classes in sacred song. 

. Within a few short years after he was ordained bishop, 
May 12, 1888, he was called away in death. 


Bishop Henry Nice 
(B. 1822—D. 1892) 

Henry Nice of Morrison, Illinois, was ordained to the 
ministry in 1853, and advanced to the office of bishop in 
1868. He was a wise and able counsellor, and exercised 
leadership in the organization and development of congre- 
gations in different parts of the state. In family training 
he seems to have met with marked success, since three of 


his sons have become ministers in the Mennonite Church 
and a fourth is a deacon. 


Isaac Schmucker 


(B. 1810—D, 1893) 


Isaac Schmucker was born in Lancaster county, Pennsyl- 
vania, Sept. 18, 1810. He afterwards lived in Wayne and 


164 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Knox counties, Ohio. In 1838 he was ordained to the min- 
istry. In November, 1841, he moved to Elkhart county, 
Indiana, and on Easter Sunday of 1842 he helped to organ- 
ize the first A. M. Congregation in the state, fourteen 
members being present. In 1843 he was ordained to the 
office of bishop. In 1851 he moved to McLean county, 
Illinois, where he was influential in building the first Amish 
Mennonite church house in the United States. In 1852 he 
again moved to Indiana and organized the congregation 
now known as the Maple Grove congregation near Topeka, 
where he spent the remaining days of his life. Many were 
the trials and hardships of this faithful soldier of the cross. 
He was active in every helpful forward movement of the 
Church until age disabled him. So on Nov. 16, 1893, 
while sitting in his chair, he fell peacefully asleep in Jesus, 
at the advanced age of 83 years. 


Bishop Jacob Kenagy 
(B. 1821—D. 1894) 


Jacob Kenagy was the faithful shepherd of the large 
congregation that worshipped at the Sycamore Church near 
East Lynne, Missouri. He also had oversight in Johnson 
and other counties of the state. He was a well read man 
and was in possession of a large library. He was an able 
expounder of the doctrines taught by the Church and was 
firm in the administration of discipline among his members. 
He was a devout student of astronomy, and had the system 
of almanac calculating well in hand. 


Bishop Samuel Coffman 
(B. 1822—D. 1894) 


His service as bishop came with the beginning of the 
Civil War period, which proved to be a most severe and 
trying time for Mennonites in the Shenandoah Valley of 
Virginia. Because of the staunch position it became neces- 
sary for a leader of the Church to take at such a time, he 
was at times threatened by the authorities to the extent 
that it was thought prudent for him to withdraw to Penn- 
sylvania, where he remained for a sufficient time for the 
iecling of public sentiment to subside. He was the first 
bishop of the Church to penetrate the interior mountain 
wilds of West Virginia. He also journeyed over many of 
the western states, and in the year 1871 he was chosen a 
member of the committee for adjusting if possible, the 
Wisler. trouble in the state of Indiana. 


OF INFORMATION 165 


Bishop John M. Brenneman 
(B. 1816—D. 1895) 


As minister and bishop he was a fearless and untiring 
preacher who seemed able to surmount any difficulty that 
stood in the way of performing a known duty for the 
Church. Through rain and warm sunshine, or heat and cold 
he rode or walked for miles to attend places of worship. 
Robust in frame and untiring in vigor of body, he often set 
out afoot for the place he expected to stop, in summer, 
going with coat on arm, and being all in prespiration entered 
the pulpit and preached some of the most powerful sermons 
of his life. He is recognized as having been the forerunner 
of evangelistic work in the Mennonite Church. 


Bishop Jonas Troyer 
(B. 1811—D. 1897) 


The name of Bishop Jonas Troyer carries with it some 
most interesting items of history connected with the early 
settlement of Amish Mennonites in northern Indiana, where 
Brother Troyer spent the last 45 years of his life as minis- 
ter and bishop, he having moved to Elkhart county in 1852. 

At a later date there came a division in the Church in 
his community, the one wing casting its lot with the Old 
Order Amish, while the other side became identified as a 
more progressive body. In this latter element, Christian 
Plank became the first minister, and Jonas Troyer the first 
bishop. As a leader in the Church he formulated the policy 
that resulted in conference legislation and the organization 
of the A. M. Conference for the state. This initial step led 
up to the final merging of his Conference with the Indiana- 
Michigan Conference of Mennonites. 

Connected with these early initial movements among 
Mennonites in Indiana, the name of Jonas Troyer takes the 
historical setting of being a strong factor in the advance- 
ment which led up to the organization of one of the 
most important local conference bodies in the Mennonite 
Church of today. 


Pre. Amos Herr 
(B. 1816—D. 1897) 


Possibly few, if any, among Mennonite ministers of his 
time possessed to a greater degree the rare faculty for 
making friends wherever he went, than Pre. Amos Herr 
of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was his invariable rule to 
greet every one with a winsome smile and a hearty hand- 
shake. Even the children were not forgotten, but all whom 


166 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


he met became objects of these special favors which he 
sought so much to bestow. 

By this means—as well as by his eloquence, sound 
judgment, and zeal for the church he became able to es- 
tablish a widely extended acquaintance among old and 
young. His visits were frequent beyond his home congre- 
gation and conference district and were everywhere appre- 
ciated. 


Bishop B. F. Hamilton 
(B. 1829—D. 1898) 


As his name indicates, he was not of Mennonite descent. 
His field of work embraced the congregations in central 
and southwestern Kansas. His home congregation was 
near Peabody. It was through his influence and work that 
the Church at Harper was organized. At the time of the 
destructive cyclone at this place in May 1892, Bro. Hamilton 
had gone there to hold communion with the members. The 
house where he had gone for the night was blown down 
but he escaped with others who found shelter in the cellar. 


Pre. John §S. Coffman 
(B. 1848—D. 1899) 


Along certain lines of Church activity, John S. Coffman 
was a prominent and outstanding character. Whole chapters 
might be written in portrayal of the peculiar traits in life 
that he developed. 

When the English supplement of Sixty-five hymns was 
compiled for “Psalms and Hymns & Sacred Songs,” he was 
named a member of that committee. At a later time he 
also rendered valuable service on the committee that com- 
piled “Hymns and Tunes,” in 1890. 

Late in the year 1878 he made an extended tour among 
congregations in the western states. At several places 
where he preached, strong appeals were made for him to 
locate. The decision was made to leave his work in Vir- 
ginia and lend his talents to the rapidly growing publishing 
interests at Elkhart, Indiana. 

Though for some years he did efficient work here as 
associate editor of “The Herald of Truth,” it soon became 
‘evident that he was destined for another field. His ability 
and general fitness as an evangelist for the Church at large 
developed in a remarkable way. No sooner was his wonder- 
ful adaptibility to this work known than his services were 
in constant demand, and in the course of the remaining 
fifteen years of his life there were few places in the Church 
—east and west, north and south—where his voice was not 
heard. He traveled extensively as an evangelist, preaching 


OF INFORMATION 167 


the Gospel in continued meetings of from ten days to three 
weeks (sometimes longer) at a place, and in which the 
Lord prospered the work with unparalleled success. 

His work extended to no less than twenty states. In 
many of these places where congregations were weak in 
numbers and apparently doomed to extinction, great in- 
gatherings from younger generations followed. In Canada 
the number of converts at one series of meetings is said to 
have been more than one hundred. 

After seeing many hundreds of young people flocking 
to the standard of the Church, and where there was not a 
proper safeguard provided in the way of school environ- 
ment, the vision of two great and coming issues confronted 
the closing years of his life. The one solemn conviction was 
that should the Mennonite Church not provide the proper 
school environment for its young people, it was doomed to 
in time become extinct. The deep and outstanding con- 
viction possessed him that the young people of the Church 
need to be taught and be directly under the care of leaders 
who are not only examples but advocates of these doc- 
trines themselves. 

He lived to see Elkhart Institute founded and its early 
beginnings develop signs of coming prosperity, but since an 
early sickness came to end his career on earth, a universally 
mourning Church may be said to be not even today fully 
recovered from the great shock caused by his death. The 
end came July 22, 1899, at the age of fifty years, nine 
months, and six days. 

Simultaneously with the hour for holding the funeral 
services at Elkhart, Indiana, where the body was also laid 
to rest, a large concourse of people assembled, with family 
connections at the Bank Church in Rockingham county, 
Ve where impressive memorial services were also 
held. 


Pre. Peter Wadel 
(B. 1827—D. 1901) 


Peter Wadel was born in Germany Feb. 14, 1827, and 
came to America in early childhood. He served as deacon 
a few years and was later ordained to the ministry. 

He was one of the old line ministers who adhered en- 
tirely to the German language. In personal appearance he 
was impressive. His voice was deep and sepulchral, and his 
manner of address never failed to greatly impress the 
hearer. His bearing toward the younger ministers of his 
congregation was like that of a typical father, and all who 
had the pleasure of his acquaintance could not do otherwise 
than to love and venerate him as such. 


168 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Bishop Michael Horst 
(B. 1824—D. 1900) 


He was a minister and bishop who gave long and ready 
service to the congregations in Washington county, Mary- 
land. He was ordained as minister in 1859 and advanced to 
the office of bishop in 1868. 

As a speaker he was both able and earnest, was court- 
eous and brotherly in manner to his fellow ministers and 
deacons, and especially so was he toward ministers who 
visited among his congregations. His testimony on such 
occasions was hearty and earnest, and it was his custom 
to order sent by the visiting minister a message of greeting 
from his people at their home congregations. 


Pre. Samuel Shank 
(B. 1828—D. 1901) 


He was a minister known far and wide throughout the 
states and provinces where the Mennonite Church is lo- 
cated. He made frequent visits to congregations in Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. He was an able counsellor, 
and his judgment was much sought for, in and outside of 
his home district. He never failed in proving himself to be 
a staunch defender of the doctrines of the Mennonite Church 
before the Virginia Conference, in which body the for some 
time served as moderator. He made long and _ frequent 
preaching trips through the mountains of the two Virginias. 
He was ordained to the ministry at the close of the Civil 
War period, at which time his dwelling house and barn 
were burned. 

In late years of his life he lost part of his right arm 
and hand. This seemed not to hinder him in preaching, as 
he readily used the stub arm in adding emphasis to his dis- 
courses. In 1890 he served as member on the compiling 
committee for the first issue of “Hymns and Tunes,” 


Bishop J. P. Schmucker 
(B. 1834—D. 1903) 


Jonathan P., son of Bishop Isaac Schmucker, was born 
May 18, 1824. He was ordained a deacon in 1873, a minister 
a few months later, and a bishop in 1878. He was one of 
the leading figures in the Indiana-Michigan A, M. Con- 
ference. When this conference was organized in 1888, at 
the Maple Grove or Hawpatch Church, he was elected its 
first moderator. His influence and usefulness was widely 
felt among the different congregations represented in this 
and other conferences. It is recorded as history that the 


OF INFORMATION 169 


first Mennonite Sunday school Conference in the United 
States was held in his Conference district. 


Pre. John K. Brubaker 
(B. 1849—D. 1903) 


During his youthful days and early manhood it is said 
that he strayed far away from his people and the Mennonite 
Church. Finally he turned completely and came to the 
fold with all the sincerity and earnestness of a_ sinner 
saved by grace. He was later called to the ministry. In 
this capacity he soon gave evidence of marked ability as a 
speaker and in which he assailed every form of sin in a 
most vigorous manner. In time requests came from far and 
near for him to preach funeral sermons, in which he was 
accustomed to dwell in glowing words on the rewards of 
the righteous after death. When called to conduct the 
funeral of one who had died out of covenant with God the 
picture he drew of death under such conditions was most 
sad and sorrowful, as he frequently spoke of the impossi- 
bility of a minister preaching a dead man to heaven when 
dying in an unsaved condition. He himself died very un- 
expectedly in mid-life when making plans for a trip to 
Virginia. His death was a great loss to the Church at home 
and abroad, as he was known far and wide among most 
congregations of Mennonites. 


Bishop Josiah Clemmer 
(B. 1830—D. 1905) 


In 1860, at the age of thirty-three, he was ordained to 
the ministry at Franconia, Pennsylvania, and eight years 
later to the office of bishop. He was moderator of the 
Franconia Conference for twenty years. He was well versed 
in the Scriptures from childhood, having been taught to com- 
mit to memory many Scriptural gems by an aged invalid 
grandmother. He taught the — scriptures logically and 
effectually, having definite points outlined in his mind which 
he presented in a very instructive manner in his sermons. 
He was especially zealous in visiting the sick and giving en- 
couragement and counsel to the unfortunate and the suf- 
fering, wielding an effectual influence for God and the 
Church, at a time when she needed strong men during the 
trying time of the Civil War and its effects. 


Bishop Martin Rutt 
(B. 1841—D. 1905) 


He was bishop and prominent leader of the Church 
in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He was ordained a 


170 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


minister in 1871, and advanced to the bishopric in 1880. 

His manner of life was the kind that won for him many 
friends who especially held him in high esteem. In the 
management of affairs in his congregation, and in his con- 
ference he was considered a safe counsellor, was never 
hasty in the decision of matters that concerned the Church 
or of any of its members, and in this way he seldom failed 
in faithfully performing his duties as bishop. 

Regardless of worldly affairs he sacrificed all for the 
common welfare of the Church and his fellowmen who came 
into personal contact with his own life, in the meantime 
cultivating the disposition to be loving, gentle, kind, and 
peaceable. 

In personality he possessed the commanding power, that 
the act of rising in the pulpit and looking over an audience 
served as an inspiration to the people, and in a most re- 
markable way prepared them for the message he had to 
deliver. He was very conservative, yet aggressive; firm, 
yet kind. A few years before his death, at a critical period 
in the history of the Church, it was his voice, largely, that 
kept the Church from dividing. Though dead for twenty 
years, his voice still speaks. 


Pre. Philip H. Parret 
(B. 1842—D. 1905) 


He was born and reared in Rockingham county, Vir- 
ginia, where he became of military age in the beginning of 
the Civil War. He was drafted into the army. He was in 
the Confederate ranks for over a year and in time was 
allowed to come home on furlough. While at home he 
applied for admission into the Mennonite Church by bap- 
tism. Instead of returning to camp he went as a refugee 
through the enemy’s lines, and later reached the vicinity 
of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He was one of the few 
of the Virginia refugees who did not return to the home of 
his youth when the war ended. Having married and become 
permanently settled, he exercised Church fellowship with 
the congregation at Chambersburg. Later he was chosen 
and ordained to preach the Gospel as the first English 
speaking minister in that congregation. 


Pre. George R. Schmitt 
(B. 1833—D. 1906) 

George R. Schmitt was a native of Alsace, Germany, 
moving to Waterloo county, Ontario, with his brother John 
while yet in his teens. Their faith was the Lutheran, but 
George, after being employed as farm laborer by Bishop 


OF INFORMATION 171 


Benjamin Eby, embraced the Mennonite faith. Later he 
engaged in farming and taught public school. When or- 
dained as minister he had received the unanimous vote of 
the congregation. His public utterances were unique-—once 
to hear him meant to remember him. His clear ringing 
tones, with “silver-tongue” effect could readily be heard 
by overflow audiences which frequently greeted his public 
ministry. His services were in demand not only in the 
church of his choice, but he occasionally filled pulpits in 
the Old Amish and Lutheran churches. During the Civil 
War, he with Pre. David Sherk made a ministerial tour 
through Pennsylvania and Virginia, preaching in most of the 
congregations then established. Later he made a_ similar 
tour thru the Central States accompanied by Pre. Moses 
Bauman. As a result of these visits he opened up an in- 
teresting correspondence with a number of church leaders 
of the various states. At the age of 73, apparently “his eye 
was not dim, nor his natural force abated.’ His last service 
for others was a visit to Pre. Sherk who was then in his last 
illness. Upon bidding goodbye he remarked “Ich kenn noch 
erst geh” (I may go yet before you). And so it proved. 
The following week on his way home from Baden, he met 
with a fatal accident. 


Bishop John Smith 
(B. 1843— D. 1906) 


He long served as shepherd over the large congregations 
in Woodford county, Illinois, and elsewhere in the state. 
He was one of the bishops recognized by the Western A. 
M. Conference at the time of its organization in 1884, and 
his voice was always listened to with great esteem when 
heard in congregation and Conference. 


Missionary Jacob Burkhard 
(B. 1873—D. 1906) 


He was a native of Stephenson county, Illinois, but was 
reared to manhood with the Roseland congregation in Ne- 
braska. He maintained a high standard of Christian piety, 
and made great personal sacrifice for the Lord and the 
Church. With such a disposition he was readily marked as 
a most promising missionary for the foreign field. He, with 
his devoted companion, along with others, reached Dhamtari, 
India, in the autumn of 1900. After a busy life of six years, 
in which much of his time was given to training the natives 
of that far-off land to repeat Scritpure verses, and to learn 
to sing Christian hymns, he became the first of our American 
Mennonite missionaries to cross from earth into the great 
beyond, death having resulted from the effects of a car- 


172 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


buncle, Sept. 29, 1906. Through God’s leading, a sorrowing 
widow and three fatherless children were left to continue 
missionary work where he laid it down. A memorial hymn, 
“Under the Mango Tree,” has been composed to desig- 
nate the spot where his remains lie at rest. This hymn is 
being sung in America and suggests many thoughts of 
tenderness and sympathy for the bereaved, both at home and 
abroad. 


Pre. Henry Englemoyer 
(B. 1859—D. 1908) 


He was a valiant young minister well known at home 
and not easily forgotten by those who formed his ac- 
quaintance abroad. His life of usefulness was cut short by 
the hand of death when it seemed his work in the ministry 
was but fairly begun. According to his own account, the 
period of his youth and early manhood, was like that of the 
apostle Paul, because of consenting to things that were 
contrary to the Word ef God and _ the teaching of the 
Church. These earlier acts of his life were the cause for 
profound regret and became the theme of many of his 
sermons, and his testimony for Christ he always gave in 
strong and most feeling language. In his early death there 
came great loss to his congregation and Conference. 


Pre. Jacob R. Hershey 
(B. 1817— D. 1910) 


He was one of the prominent and very active ministers 
in the congregation of the Hershey Church near Kinzers, 
Pennsylvania. His life, like that of many others of the 
Hershey name, was one of great endeavor, in which he 
was a man who was always wide awake for the Master’s 
cause and the prosperity and Christian welfare of the 
Church. He was ordained as a minister in 1856 and his 
activities in the ministry covered much of the period of the 
last quarter of the nineteenth century. 


Bishop John K. Yoder 
(B. 1824—D. 1910) 


As an influential and successful man he served the 
Amish Mennonites as bishop in Wayne county Ohio. He 
was ordained to the ministry in 1850 and advanced to the 
office of bishop in 1859. He was recognized as one showing 
great ability as a disciplinarian and organizer in his own 
church and in congregations elsewhere. For many years 
his services were much in demand by his co-workers for 
assistance in settling difficulties and misunderstandings 


OF INFORMATION 173 


among brethren. The great work of his life was the capable 
leadership that he exercised in the establishing of new 
congregations, and for shaping and directing the general 
government of the Church in his own as well as in adjoin- 
ing states. 


Bishop Isaac Eby 
(B. 1834—D. 1910) 


He was long considered as one of the patriarch Fathers 
of the Lancaster Conference. In point of age he was the 
senior to Jacob N. Brubacher, but not in the order of ordi- 
nation. He traveled extensively and his acquaintanceship 
was widely extended through the churches. He had calls 
to assist in straightening out difficulties and misunderstand- 
ings among brethren at home and in other states. These 
occasions became to him so common-place that he became 
accustomed to refer to them as, “church fights’ not that he 
meant to speak lightly or reproachfully of the Church as a 
body, but rather for showing how much out of place brethren 
may become at such times. He was given much to prayer 
and consecration to God and the Church, and this was no 
doubt the secret to the genial deportment he always bore 
toward his friends. 


Pre. Menno S. Steiner 
(B. 1866—D. 1911) 


In early manhood he was called to the ministry, in which 
position he showed marked ability and prospects were most 
promising with him for a life of great usefulness to the 
Church. He traveled extensively, which gave opportunity to 
visit and to preach in many of the congregations where 
Mennonites are located. 

After the merging of the two main mission boards of 
the Church into one body known as “Mennonite Board of 
Missions and Charities,” in 1906, he became the first presi- 
dent of the new organization, which position he _ held 
until death. He was actively connected with the move- 
ment that brought into effect the merging of the pub- 
lishing interests of the Church into one organization 
under the Mennonite Publishing House. He was the author 
of several valuable books, “Pitfalls and Safeguards,” and 
“Biography of John S. Coffman.” 


Bishop David Plank 
(B. 1833—D. 1912) 


Perhaps there was no other bishop and minister of the 
Gospel among people of the Mennonite faith who possessed 


174 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


to a greater degree the rare gift for engrafting the warm 
and genial nature of his personality upon the affections of his 
people, than did David Plank of Bellefontaine, Qhios eeu. 
was an earnest advocate for the introduction of Sunday 
school work among his people, and to his name is linked 
the honor for establishing the first Sunday school for 
Mennonites in the state of Ohio. As a public speaker 
he was most precise in the use of language, and oiten 
used very apt and fitting illustrations when addressing 
an audience. When responding in his turn for giving 
account of his home congregation before the Mennonite 
General Conference of Nov. 13, 1902 held at Elida, Ohio, 
he remarked that some of his people were leaning danger- 
ously in the direction of a “Sugar-coated, modernized, 
legalized and Americanized idolatry.” Long may the 
memory of David Plank—broad minded, broad shouldered, 
yet low in statue—survive in the annals of the Mennonite 
Church in America. 


Bishop Jacob N. Brubacher 
(B. 1838—D. 1913) 


For a long period of usefulness to the Church as a 
minister, and later as bishop, the name of Jacob N. Bru- 
bacher became linked with the Lancaster Conference as a 
man who was always prompt and deliberate in his decisions 
when dealing with difficult and trying cases. His counsel 
and advice could always be depended on during the long 
period in which he was recognized as the senior bishop and 
official head of the Lancaster Conference. 

He was by nature pleasant and congenial toward all 
with whom he met at home or abroad. Many visiting 
ministers from other conferences to his home congregations, 
can testify to the generous and courteous treatment they 
received from his hand. 

During the earlier years of his life, as a minister he was 
an ardent supporter of the Sunday School cause, and in 
many helpful ways contributed to the welfare and spiritual 
growth of the congregations where he served. His occasional 
visits to Virginia at periods of great responsibility have been 
seasons in which his name and work have been held in 
grateful remembrance. 


Pre. A. D. Martin 
(B. 1878—D. 1913) 
He grew up to manhood as a student and school teach- 


er near Greencastle, Pennsylvania. In later years he lo- 
cated at Scottdale, Pennsylvania, where he was called to 


OF INFORMATION 175 


the ministry and became identified with the Gospel Witness 
Company, at that place in 1905. When the Mennonite 
Publishing House was organized there in 1908 he became 
its first Secretary-Treasurer. It was largely through his 
influence and work that the book publishing interest of the 
Church became established at Scottdale in connection with 
Mennonite Publishing House. In the midst of a busy life 
he was seized with an incurable malady that brought on an 
untimely death. At the time of his death he lived near 
Greencastle. 


Bishop Joseph Schlegel 
(B. 1837—D. 1913) 


Joseph Schlegel of Milford Nebraska was one of the 
Amish Mennonite bishops recognized by the Western A. M. 
Conference at the time of its organization in 1884. He was 
born near Mulhausen, Alsace, Nov. 11, 1837, ordained to the 
ministry at Wayland, Iowa, in 1867, ordained a bishop the 
following year, and in 1879 he moved to Milford, Nebraska. 
He had the large field assigned to him, embracing the 
states of Nebraska, Colorado, and Oregon. This work 
required much traveling and visitation work away from 
home. 


Bishop David Hilty 
(B. 1845—D. 1914) 


He was a native of Bluffton, Ohio, and in 1894 was 
placed in charge of the Mennonite congregation at West 
Liberty. Still later he located at Nampa, Idaho, where he 
became bishop of the congregation at that place at Antioch 
Church in about 1901. 

His identity with the Pacific Coast Conference gave 
life and impetus to that distant and growing field in the 
far west. His death in 1914 created a vacancy in the con- 
gregation at Nampa that has as yet not been filled by an- 
other. 


Bishop Andrew Mack 
(B. 1836—D. 1917) 


He was a most fervent and earnest speaker in public 
as well as a pleasant and agreeable conversationalist. For a 
number of years he was the senior bishop in the Franconia 
Conference, and over which he presided for some time as 
moderator. He manifested great concern for the prosperity 
of the Church in his home district, as well as for the body 
at large. 

The master stroke of his life appeared to have been 
made for the Church at large, when addressing the Pre- 


176 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


liminary Meeting on Nov. 1], 1897 at the Pike Church near 
Elida, Ohio. It was at this meeting that the great question 
was to be decided as to whether or not there should be a 
General Conference. Because he there gave information as 
to what was the real attitude of the Pennsylvania brother- 
hood on the question, the full strength of the vote fell in 
favor of a General Conference. 


Pre, Christian Allebaugh 
(B. 1841—D. 1917) 


He was a carriage maker by occupation, at Kulpsville, 
Pennsylvania, where vehicles were made for a pattern and 
style suitable and consistent for Mennonites to drive to 
Church in. He was gifted with a wonderful flow of lan- 
guage which was invariably in German. As a most interest- 
ing and edifying conversationalist he had few equals, and it 
was a source of comfort and religious profit to visit him 
or bear him company during a journey. In every walk in 
life he maintained the attitude of a plain man, and no one 
who has had the pleasure of meeting him can never forget 
his pleasing personality. He took a keen interest in the 
welfare of the Church, and his life and labors were directed 
to thats.end: 


Bishop Henry B. Rosenberger 
(B. 1844—D. 1868) 


He was bishop for the Blooming Glen, Line Lexington 
and other congregations of the Franconia district in eastern 
Pennsylvania, a talented and forceful speaker. He was a 
man of studious habits and was given to earnest reading 
and hence much diligent research for truth and its appli- 
cation to the ways of righteousness. He was given to hos- 
pitality in the true sense, for the doors of his home were 
ever open as a shelter for visiting ministers to his district, 
and it appeared to him to be more as a gracious privilege 
rather than as a duty, to convey visitors from place among 
his people. Ordained minister, Oct. 27, 1885; bishop, Nov. 
25, 1895. 


Pre. Daniel F. Driver 
(B. 1836—D. 1920) 


Daniel F. Driver of Versailles, Missouri, was one of 
those individuals who in early life developed the faculty 
of leadership in many of the activities of the Church. He 
grew up to manhood, married and in part reared a family 
in Rockingham county, Virginia, but in 1870 located per- 
manently with his family in Missouri, where soon after he 
was ordained to the ministry. It was here that his greatest 


OF INFORMATION 177 


activity for the Church began, when he along with others 
took a leading hand in the organization of the Missouri-lowa 
and Kansas Conference. In travelling east and west among 
the churches, he frequently visited his many friends and 
kindred in Virginia. His last visit to this section, was when 
General Conference was held at Assembly Park, near 
Harrisonburg, August, 1919. 


Pre. Jacob C. Moyer 
(B. 1839—D, 1921) 


He was ordained to the Ministry in July, 1881. He 
regarded his call and responsibility as a minister with great 
seriousness. His manner and purpose was to keep telling 
of the Savior’s love and the great importance of living the 
Christian life. In humility, separation, and Christian love 
he was an example to all, and to every one he gave evidence 
of a strong and shining faith, He died in his eighty third 
year full of days and good works. 


Deacon George L. Bender 
(B. 1867—D. 1921) 


The long list would seem incomplete without mention 
of George Lewis Bender of Elkhart, Indiana. After follow- 
ing the occupation of school teacher for a number of years 
in three different states, he became prominently connected 
with the work of direct service for the Mennonite Church, 
serving for some years in the Mennonite Publishing Company 
at Elkhart, Indiana. In 1890 he was chosen to be treasurer 
of the Mennonite Evangelizing and Benevolent Board of 
America, since chartered as Mennonite Board of Missions 
and Charities; a position he faithfully and efficiently filled 
for more than thirty years. His pronounced and positive 
personality became an important factor in the work of the 
Board. His very life seemed devoted to its common in- 
terests. It was largely through his efforts as agent and 
counsellor for the Board that the present Administration 
Building at Elkhart was planned and erected as a home for 
the Board. In 1907 he was ordained to the office of deacon 
for the Prairie Street congregation in Elkhart. He died at 
Elkhart January 17, 1921. 


Missionary Mahlon C, Lapp 
(B. 1872—D. 1923) 

Mahlon C. Lapp was born in Line Lexington, Pennsyl- 
vania in the year 1872 and died at the Presidency General 
Hospital, Calcutta, India, on May 30, 1923. 

Years ago his family became resident near Roseland, 


178 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Nebraska, and it was here that Mahlon grew up with 
several other brothers of missionary calibre, each of whom, 
with himself were called to fill prominent stations in the 
Church. He with his companion were appointed as mission- 
arics to India. Before their departure, he was ordained a 
bishop by officials of his conference and home congregation. 
Twenty-two years of his life were given to the Lord’s 
cause in India. In this responsible field of service he filled 
the place of farmer, doctor, builder, and minister, and thus 
became “all things to all men, that he might by all means 
save some.” He was cheerful and winsome in disposition, 
a quality of character that eminently fitted him for mission- 
ary work in the great field where he served. Few, if any 
of the other missionaries now living and serving in this 
field, have given as much time to the mission work of the 
Church as have Mahlon C. and Sarah Lapp. 

His body was brought from Calcutta, where he died, 
to Dhamtari, where the funeral was held in the Mango 
orchard in the presence of some of the missionaries and 
about eight hundred Indian Christians, along with others 
who were Hindus and Mohammedans. 


Pre. J. D. Charles 
(B. 1878 — D. 1923) 


His life service for the Mennonite Church, was peculiar 
in the fact that he filled the double position of teacher and 
preacher. 

As a writer, his energies were used in the manner that 
brought him in touch with the entire Church in America 
wherever its periodicals have been read. His productions on 
“The Fallacies of Evolution,’ “The World’s Religions,” 
and “The Eternal Verities,” the last appearing in the Chris- 
tian Monitor since his death, are masterpieces of Mennonite 
literature of our modern days. 

Having for many years been teacher in the scientific 
department of Hesston College, his untimely death can be 
said to be one of the greatest losses the Mennonite Church 
has sustained since the death of John S. Coffman. 


Bishop David Burkholder 
(B. 1835— D. 1923) 


David Burkholder of Nappanee, Indiana, was a promi- 
nent leader in the Church of his adopted state and con- 
ference. He gave long service as a minister, but it was 
not until the latter years of his life that he was ordained ~ 
a bishop. His native language was German, but in time 
he gained sufficient command of English that he became a 


OF INFORMATION 179 


forceful speaker as well as a strong writer in that language. 
His articles to the Church papers often proved to be master- 
ly efforts, especially when writing on doctrinal subjects. 
During the closing years of his life he wrote several his- 
torical articles for the Mennonite Family Almanac on cus- 
toms and ways of people in the early days, contributions 
which were widely read and appreciated. He occasionally 
travelled to Virginia to visit the home of his ancestors, 
ae to preach the Gospel to many friends and acquaintances 
rOChC: 


Bishop Sebastian Gerig 
(B. 1838—D. 1924) 


For many years Bro. Gerig served as bishop and leader 
in the congregations of the state of Iowa. It was at the 
time of the Conference held with his home congregation at 
Sugar Creek in Henry county in 1884 that he received the 
appointment to take oversight of the congregations in 
Henry, Washington, Johnson, and other counties of the 
state. He was recognized as a prominent leader and coun- 
sellor in Church affairs. For thirty years or more he filled 
this position with courage and fidelity and refused to lay 
his armor down until the weight of years required that he 
relinquish the burden and allow it to fall on younger should- 
ers. 

He died April 3, 1924, in a good old age, that was full 
of years of service for the Church of his choice, and de- 
votion to God and His Word. Like a patriarch of the long 
past, he was gathered to his people. 


Bishop Jacob Nussbaum 
(B. 1841—D. 1924) 


Jacob Nussbaum, Orrville, Ohio, was ordained in the 
Sonnenburg, (Swiss Mennonite) congregation, on Dec. 10, 
1882, to the office of bishop, having been called to the 
ministry just three years before. He was of a kind dispo- 
sition and was loved and respected by all who knew him. 
He found much joy and comfort in reading the Bible. He 
devoted much time and attention to the common welfare of 
the Church to which he gave forty-two years as_ bishop. 
Death came to him very suddenly at his home on July 30, 
1924. He was universally honored and respected by the 
Mennonite Church at large for the faithful and fatherly 
care he bestowed upon his congregation. 


180 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Bishop Abram Metzler 
(B. 1862—D. 1924) 


He was for many years one of the faithful and active 
bishops of the Martinsburg district. At the time of his 
death he was the elect moderator of the Southwestern Penn- 
sylvania Conference, and for many years he rendered effec- 
tive service to the Church at large as one of its most untir- 
ing evangelists. In adressing an audience during such 
meetings he invariably spoke with peculiar fervency and 
earnestness. Ever since its organization he served as treas- 
urer of the Mennonite Publication Board. One of the 
greatest efforts of his life as a speaker was perhaps the 
sermon he delivered at the opening of the Mennonite Gen- 
eral Conference held at Archbold, Ohio, in 1915. He con- 
tinued active in the evangelistic field until shortly before 
his death. 


Bishop Daniel N. Lehman 
(1852—1925) 

Himself a minister, he was the son of a minister, and 
father of a minister, active in the service of his Master, 
devoted to the best and highest interests of his church. He 
was ordained in the Millersville Mennonite Church in 1898, 
advanced to the bishopric in 1921, and while his voice was 
heard in many places outside of his district, his life labors 
were spent in building up the cause in his own congrega- 
tion and conference district. His body was laid to rest in 
the cemetery beside the church, amid the tears of his rela- 
tives and friends; his spirit went home to the great God 
who gave it, while the influence of his life is still speaking 
loudly to loved ones left behind. 


GEA Dal Riek V LT 


FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN 1925 
Missionaries in India 

Name Place Arrived 
M. C. Lehman Sundarganj 1906 
Lydia Lehman Sundarganj 1906 
Ben eM iller Sundarganj 1921 
Ruth Miller Sundarganj 1921 
Le a. SCu Shantipur 1910 
Mina Esch Shantipur 1910 
Mary A. Wenger 
A, C. Brunk Balodgahan 1902 
Eva Brunk Balodgahan 1902 
Anna Stalter Balodgahan 1905 
Mary M. Good Balodgahan 1920 
G. D. Troyer Medical Station 1923 
Kathryn Troyer Medical Station 1923 
P. A. Friesen Sankra 1907 
Florence Friesen Sankra 1916 
G. J. Lapp Ghatula 1905 
Fannie Lapp Ghatula 1913 
R. R. Smucker Mahodi 1920 
Alma Smucker Mahodi 1920 
Joseph Graber New missionaries 1925 
Minnie Graber New missionaries 1925 
Minnie Kanagy New missionaries 1925 
Ada Hartzler New missionaries 1925 
Sarah Lapp Home on furlough 1901 
J. N. Kaufman Home on furlough 1905 
Elsie Kaufman Home on furlough 1908 

India Missionaries’ Children 

Name Place of Birth Date 
Russel Kaufman Naini Tal, India Apr. 8 1910 
Paul Kaufman Dhamtari, India ete Caso 
Kathryn Ruth KaufmanNaini Tal, India May 22 1922 
David Esch Igatpuri, India May 21 1911 
Sarah Esch Dhamtari, India Nov. 8 1912 
Mary Ellen Esch Dhamtari, India Nov. 24 1915 
Nellie May Esch Newton, Kans., U. S. /Aug. 28 1918 
Barbara Alice Esch Dhamtari, India Mar. 8 1921 
Thelma Marie Miller Dhamtari, India Fit cami Oe LN 


182 MENNONITE HANDBOOK 


Byron Nortell TroyerCicero, Ill, U. S. A. July 8 1918 
Dana Orion Troyer Chicago, Jil, U)S! A. July” 127 1920 
Mary Annabelle TroyerChicago, Ill., U. S. A. Dec. 14 1921 
Willie Friesen Darjeeling, India May 8 1913 
John Friesen Sankra, India Nov. 30 1915 
Edward Friesen Sankra, India Oct. 10 1919 
Paul Arthur Friesen Bethel, Kans., U. S, ASept. 10 1923 
Grace Elizabeth FriesenDhamtari, India Nov. 28 1924 
Lois Lapp Igatpuri, India Oct. 26 1907 
Harriet Lapp Calcutta, India Mar, »31, 1915 
Ernest Edward SmuckerGoshen, Ind., U. S, A.June 3 1919 
Arthur Allen Smucker Dhamtari, India Nov.J 2741923 
Peter Friesen Mt. Lake, Minn., U. S.Aug, 25 1902 
Ida Friesen Igatpuri, India Sept. 8 1908 
Irene Friesen Bilaspur, India Janaycoasoto 
Carolyn Lehman Dhamtari, India Nov. 24 1912 
Waldo Lehman Dhamtari, India OCtee eo miILG 
Missionaries in South America 
T. K. Hershey Pehuajo, Argentina, S. A. 1917 
Mae Hershey Pehuajo, Argentina, S. A. 1917 
Dee wvantz Pehuajo, Argentina, S. A. 1921 
Lillie Lantz Pehuajo, Argentina, S. A. 1921 
Vera Hallman Trenque Lauquen, Argentina 1923 
Salena Gamber Trenque Lauquen, Argentina 1923 
J. W. Shank Trenque Lauquen, Argentina 1917 
Emma H. Shank Trenque Lauquen, Argentina 1917 
Albano Luayza Santa Rosa, Argentina, S. A. 1921 
Querubina Luayza Santa Rosa, Argentina, S. A. 1921 
William G. Lauver Carlos Casares, Argentina 1921 
Florence D. Lauver Carlos Casares, Argentina 1921 
Amos Swartzendruber Pehuajo, Argentina, S. A. 1924 
Edna Swartzendruber Pehuajo, Argentina, S. A. 1924 
Jee eR utt Carlos Casares, Argentina 1925 
Mary Rutt Carlos Casares, Argentina 1925 
Nelson Litwiller New missionaries 1925 
Ada Litwiller New missionaries 1925 
S. A. Missionaries’ Children 
Beatrice Hershey (Gap aaa oA. 1906 
Lester Hershey Youngstown, O., U. S. A. 1912 
Elsie Shank (ayy untascolo. wane 1911 
Robert Shank La Junta, Colo., U.S. A. 1914 
Paul Shank Trenque Lauquen, Argentina 1921 
Lois Lauver Trenque Lauquen, Argentina 1921 
Paul Lauver Carlos Casares, Argentina 1923 
Doris Swartzendruber Petersburg, Ont., Canada 1922 
Litwiller Sept. 10 1921 


Litwiller 


SUBJECT INDEX 


Albigenses 7 
Allebach, Christian 176 


Allgyer, S. E. 130 
Amish Mennonites, The 63, 
65, 125 


Anabaptists 7,13 
Articles of Faith 15 
Armistice, The 99 


Enos 148 
Bartolet, Henry 108 
Beachy, C. M. 149 
Beachy, Jonas 154 
Bender, D. H. 98, 130 
Bender, Geo. L. 31.177 
Benner, Rhine W. 99 
Bigleratisnica lou 
Biaurock, George 7 
Biauch, Jacob 160 
Blosser, Abraham 112 
Blosser, John 31, 130 
Blosser, Jacob 147 
Blosser, Martin 150 
Blosser, Noah 110 
Brenneman, Daniel 23, 64 
Brenneman, Henry 147 
Brenneman, John M. 23,165 
Brubacher, Jacob N. 174 
Brubaker, John K. 169 
Brunk, Adeline V. 149 
Brunk, Geo. R. 130 
Brunk, J. D. 34 

Brunk, J. FP; 54 
Buchwalter, I. J. 130 
Buckwalter, Anna M. 150 


Barge, 


Burkhard, Jacob 171 
Burkholder, Caleb W. 147 
Burkholder, David 178 
Burkholder, Martin 122,161 
Burkholder, Oscar 130 
Burkholder, Peter 109, 159 


Central Illinois Conference 
of Mennonites 64 
Charles: = Js" 130,178 
Christian Fundamentals 36° 
Church Activities 23 
Church & Sunday Schoo! 
Hymnal 113 
Church of God in 
Mennonite 64 
Clemmer, A. G. 98 
Clemmer, Josiah 169 
Coffman, John *Srag2o.51, 54, 
110, 166 
Coffman, Samuel 164 
Cofiman, S: Fiw34; 13) 
Conscription 87,90 
Defenceless Mennonites 64 
Dhamtari, India, Mission 
Founded 24 
Dock, Christopher 104 
Dress Committee 34 
Driver, Daniel F. 176 
Driver, Daniel W. 154 
Driver, Joseph N. 163 


Christ, 


Driver, Lewis 148 
Durr, John N. 126, 130 
Early Efforts to Educate 


Children 26 


184 


Early Mennonite Settlements 
42, 44, 53,75 
Eastern Mennonite 
29, 145 

Eby, Benjamin 108, 160 

Eby, Isaac 173 

Eby, Peter 158 

Elkhart Institute 28 

Englemoyer, Henry 172 

Ephrata 105 . 

Family Almanac 112 

First Mennonite Deacon in 
America 47 

First Mennonite Minister in 
America 28, 47 

First Organized Mennonite 
Church 7 

First Paper Mill in America 
28 


Frey, E. L. 98, 130 

Funck, Heinrich 105, 158 

Funk, Jacob 48 

Punk, Johngjic<20.- 32; 100 

Funk, John F. & Bro. 48, 
108, 112 

Funk, Joseph 108, 110 


Garber, Ethan 153 

Garber, Jacob 150 

Geil, John (Bishop) 163 

Geil, John (Pre.) 162 

General Conference Menno- 
nites 63 

General Sunday School Com- 
mittee 30 

Gerig, Sebastian 179 

Germantown Settlement 9, 47 

Gingerich, Simon 130 

Goldschmidt, Joseph 162 


School 


MENNONITE 


HANDBOOK 


Good, D. W. 153 
Good, I. B. 98 
Goshen College 29, 145 
Gospel Herald 114 
Gospel Witness 113 
Grebel, Conrad 7 
Groves, Etta W. 151 


Habecker, J. C. 98 
Paliman, Peli oroonlco 
Hamilton, B. F. 166 
Harmonia Sacra 110 
Hartzler, John M. 155 
Hartzler. J.9 52098299130 
Hartzlerints =U; b> 
Hauck; D. F. 152 
Hartman, Emanuel 126 
Hartman, Regina 77 
Heatwole, David 78 
Heatwole, L. J. 99 
Herald of Truth 112 
Herr, Amos 165 
Herr, John 63 
Hershey, Elmer H. 152 
Hershey, Jacob 158 
Hershey, Jacob R. 172 
Hesston College and Bible 
School 29, 145 
Hilty, David 175 
Historical Committee 31 
Holdeman, John 64 
Hooley, John 77 
Horsch, John 32, 36 
Horst, Michael 168 
Hostetler, C. K. 54 
Hostetler, Jacob 74 


Indians 71 
Johns, D. J. 126, 130 


OF INFORMATION 185 


Kauffman, Daniel 126, 130 
Kauffman, Martin, 106 
Kauffman, Michael 75 
Kauffman, Paul 154 
Kenagy, Jacob 164 

Kolb, Dielman 105, 157 
Kratz, Clayton F. 154 
Kratz, Valentine 160 
Kunders, Dennis 47 


Landes, Hans 9 

Lapp, Mahlon C. 177 
Lapp, Samuel G. 152 
Payiian, samy Loe 
Lehman, Daniel 158 
Lehman, Daniel N. 180 
LichtiDe Diios 
Libby Prison 88 
Losses Sustained 60 
Loucks, Aaron 91, 98, 130 
Luther, Martin 14 


Mack, Andrew 128, 175 
Maisel, Otto 50 
Manz, Felix 7 
Martin, A. D. 31, 174 
Martyr’s Mirror 104, 112 
Mennonite Belevolent and 
Evangelizing Board 23 
Benevolent Institutions 144 
Board of Education 26, 28, 
35 
Board of Missions 
Charities 23 
Book & Tract Society 30 
Books and Periodicals 54, 
104, 109, 129 
Brethren in Christ 64 
Conferences 10, 22 


and 


Confession of Faith 15, 17, 
109 
General Conference 20, 93, 
101, 122, 125 
Publication Board 29 
Publishing Company 110 
Publishing House 29, 31 
Sunday School Committee 
33 
Tree, The 55 
Music Committee 33 
Relief Commission 100 
Mennonites and Modernism 35 
ine Ganadaces 
In Mexican War 84 
In Revolutionary War 80 
In War of 1812 85 
In the Civil War 87 
In the Great World War 
90 
Of Former 
42,115 
On Military Service 93,101 
Mennonitische Ryndschau 109 
Metzler, Abram 130, 180 
Miller, D. D. 33, 98, 130 
Miller, N. E. 130 
Miller, S. H. 99 
Miller, Stephen 148 
Moyer, Arthur T. 155 
Moyer, Jacob 161 
Moyer, Jacob C. 177 
Mumaw, Levi 100 


Generations 


Nice, Henry 163 
Novatians 7 
Nussbaum 179 


Oberholtzer, J. H. 63 


186 


Origin of the Name Menno- 
nite 8,13 

Our Position on Peace 101 

Outline of Mennonite Lit- 
erature 104 


Page, W. B. 24 


Parret, Philip H. 170 
Paulicans 7 
Penn, William 53, 70 


Persecutions 9, 50, 80, 88, 90, 
99 

Persistent Colonization Move- 
ments 56 

Petitions to Government 81, 
OF en LOS 

Philips, Dietrich 107, 127 

Philips, Obbe 7,13 

Piank, David 173 

Plockhoy, Cornelisz 44 

Prominent Leaders 157 


Quakers and Mennonites 43, 
53, 71, 80 


Rankins, John 155 

Reformed Mennonites 63 
Ressler, J. A. 24, 130 
Rhodes, John 75 
Rittenhuysen, Wilhelm 28, 


47,157 
Rose, Daniel 155 
Rosenberger, Henry 176 


Kieffer Co. 113 
Mennonites 9, 65, 123 


Sachse, Julius F. 45 
Sauer, Christopher 
Schisms 60, 63 
Schlegel, Joseph 175 
Schmucker, Isaac 163 


Ruebush 
Russian 


104 


MENNONITE 


HANDBOOK 


Schmucker, J. P. 
Schmidtt, George R. 
Shank, Samuel 168 
Shenandoah Valley 75, 87 
Shoemaker,’ J.°S: 33,483, 7130 
Simons, Menno 7, 13, 69 
Shetler, S. G. 130 

Slabach, John 151 

Smith, J. B. 34, 106 
Smith, John 17 

Spanish American War 85 
Stauffer Mennonites 63 
Stauffer, Noah 33 

Stauffer, N. B. 130 
Steman, Henry 161 

Stemen, Samuel 149 


Stevanus, W. S. 151 


33, 168 
170 


Suter, Emanuel 110 
Swiss Brethren 7,9 
Thurman, Colo., Storm 156 


Tragical Events 146 
Troyer, Jonas 165 
Two Kingdoms 67 


Van Bracht, Theilman J. 18, 


26 
Wadel, Peter 167 
Waldenses 7, 13 


Weaver, John W. 31,111 153 

Weideman, Nora 163 

Weland, Magdalena 78 

Wenger, A. D. 31 

Wenger, Jos. W. 150 

Wenger, John M. 151 

Where American Menno- 
nites are Located 56, 65 

Wisler, Jacob 64 

Wisler Mennonites 64 


OF INFORMATION 187 


Yoder, C. Z. 22, 34 Y. P. Topics Committee 34 
Yoder=Ds. At. 130 
Yoder, John K.’ 172 Zigler, Andrew 48 


Yoder o.6C. 230 Zook, Shem 162 


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